Proton has been on a roll lately. The Swiss company keeps expanding its privacy-focused ecosystem with tools that actually work for regular people. Take Lumo AI, for instance, their privacy-respecting AI assistant that doesn't feed your prompts into some data-hungry training pipeline.
And now, they are taking a big swing at Big Tech's productivity services dominance by launching Proton Sheets, an encrypted spreadsheet tool that isn't interested in mining your data.
End-to-End Encryption Meets Spreadsheets
Launched as a feature of Proton Drive, Sheets is rolling out gradually to all users, even those on the free tier. If you don't see it on your account, you will soon enough. Anant Vijay, Product Lead at Proton, says that with this addition, Proton Drive is now a clear alternative to Google Drive.
Getting started with it is quite easy. Just sign into your Drive and click on the "New" button, then select "New spreadsheet."
In terms of features, you will find all the usual ones you might expect from an online spreadsheet tool. There's real-time collaboration where multiple people can edit the same spreadsheet, built-in support for formulas to handle math problems, import and export of CSV and XLS files, and strong access control to shared sheets.
Proton Sheets collaboration options and screen size too small warning.
Everything is encrypted end-to-end. That means Proton can't see your data. Neither can anyone else unless you explicitly share access with them. Plus, the interface works across devices, so you can access your spreadsheets securely on the go.
And here's something interesting: Proton Sheets warns you when your browser window is too small. It is a thoughtful design choice that prevents you from mangling your spreadsheet on a tiny screen or window.
But this warning can get annoying. Sometimes you just want to quickly check a number or verify a formula on a sheet...
Wrapping Up
Proton now has a complete productivity suite. Email, calendar, file storage, documents, and spreadsheets. All encrypted. All private.
Add Proton Pass for password management, Proton VPN for secure browsing, and Lumo AI for private AI assistance into the mix, and you will find that the Proton ecosystem is a reliable Big Tech alternative that doesn't treat you as the product.
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