Defeat censorship with Stealth, our new VPN protocol

We’ve developed a new VPN protocol, Stealth, that can avoid detection and let you bypass internet censorship and VPN blocks.

We’re pleased to announce Stealth, a new, undetectable VPN protocol that can bypass most firewalls and VPN blocking methods. You’ll be able to bypass advanced VPN blocks, access censored sites, and communicate with people on social media, even if your government is trying to restrict access.

Why is Stealth needed?

In 2017, we launched Proton VPN because there was no trustworthy, reliable, and freely available VPN service. Our motivation was simple.

Because our services, such as Proton Mail, play a crucial role in ensuring freedom and privacy worldwide, we knew authoritarian governments would eventually try to block them.

But with Proton VPN, people can bypass those blocks and continue using Proton Mail. Over the past few years, Proton VPN has become an essential tool, helping ensure the free flow of information for tens of millions of people during crises and wars around the world.

Since we launched Proton VPN, we’ve continuously worked on technology to bypass surveillance and censorship. For example, in 2017, we launched Secure Core VPN, which provides greater privacy than typical VPN services.

In 2020, we launched alternative routing(new window), which bypasses VPN blocks by re-routing our connections over other hard-to-trace paths. Finally, in 2021, we released VPN Accelerator, a unique technology that provides connection speeds that are up to 400% faster, which is critically important for users in far-flung regions with slower internet.

As we have stepped up our efforts to build a more censorship-resistant VPN, authoritarian governments have also stepped up their efforts to block VPNs. Traditional VPN protocols (such as OpenVPN, IKEv2, and WireGuard) are relatively easy to recognize on a network. And as deep packet inspection (DPI) technology becomes more widespread, it will be easier and easier for authoritarian governments to detect and block VPNs using these protocols.

For years there have been various projects to try to obfuscate existing VPN protocols, but many of them are hacks on top of existing protocols that unfortunately no longer work very well.

We designed our Stealth protocol from the ground up to not have these issues. With Stealth enabled, your Proton VPN connection will be almost completely undetectable.

Stealth is available on all Proton VPN plans, including our Free plan, because everyone deserves online freedom. For now, you can use Stealth on our Android, Windows, macOS, and iOS apps.

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