Proton VPN introduces new Anti-censorship features — Stealth for Windows, new servers, and disguise your VPN icon

Hi everyone,

It has become increasingly common for authoritarian governments to go beyond purely online technical measures to discourage or block VPN use. Certain countries have even begun demanding citizens hand over their smartphones for physical inspection. Protecting free speech and fighting censorship is a core part of our mission and we’re committed to doing what we can to help users around the world.

With today’s announcement, we hope to give people the tools they need to bypass censorship and access a free and fair internet wherever they are:

  • Windows Stealth: Proton’s unique anti-censorship protocol, Stealth, comes to Windows, disguising VPN traffic as normal internet traffic, making it almost impossible to detect when someone is using a VPN: https://protonvpn.com/blog/stealth-vpn-protocol
  • New servers: in 12 countries among those at the bottom of the Freedom House Index and the Democracy Index
  • Discreet Icon: Android users can customize the Proton VPN app icon and name, and even disguise it to look like another unrelated application to protect users in authoritarian regimes where VPN users may be at risk: https://protonvpn.com/support/disguise-app-icon

Proton VPN’s mission is to ensure freedom of speech and fight online censorship everywhere. Here’s how to get started with Proton VPN for free: https://protonvpn.com/free-vpn

Let us know what you think. You can also propose, vote, and discuss feature requests on User Voice.

Proton Team

Keep fighting the good fight Proton. Great stuff.

You guys are awesome. Great work. Trying stealth now on my android

The posts whining about this can finally end!

Big props Proton team!

fun idea make a stealth mode for the app like a fake calculator and you have to enter a specific equation or code to go to the actual app

still doesnt seem to work in Russia, stuck at initializing connection or authenticating user

Is this new stealth protocol gonna be available to routers???

Proton raising the bar again

Would Stealth also help not to trigger Google CAPTCHA? Since Stealth makes the VPN traffic indistinguishable from regular one?

Great stuff Proton keep up the outstanding work stealth works fine on Windows client no problem

s.

Holy shit I love yall!

I love hiding the icons. I noticed on android one of the apps now also has this ability, but I hope that it’s planned to have that option for all the apps.

Does stealth mode work in China?

For some countries, these are awesome new features. Great work!

And still, I can’t make it work properly at my workplace :relieved_face:

You guys are awesome

Thanks Team Proton. You guys are awesome.

Good stuff. Now fix your ProtonVPN app on Linux

Any possibility of ARM support on Windows? More and more machines are coming out with Qualcomm’s chips…

Are there any disadvantages to using Stealth protocol over the Smart protocol?