14 DAY TRIAL // ProtonMail, the world's biggest provider of encrypted email services, accused Google today of suppressing its site from appearing in search results for terms such as "secure email" or "encrypted email."
The company says that between October 2015 and August 2016, Google removed its site from search results for those terms, for which ProtonMail says it constantly ranked on the first or second page.
ProtonMail says that its service continued to rank as one of the top results in other search engines, but it was nonexistent in Google's eyes.
It took Google 10 months to answer ProtonMail
The company said Google ignored its inquiries on the matter for months, and only after it asked its Twitter followers for help did a Google engineer intervene and ProtonMail started showing up in search results.
Google only said it "fixed something." Andy Yen, ProtonMail co-founder, doesn't believe Google's explanation.
In a blog post published yesterday, Yen focuses on a conflict of interests, with Google, and more specifically Gmail, benefiting from ProtonMail's absence from search results.
ProtonMail co-founder suspects intentional sabotage
He also points out that around the same time his site disappeared from Google search results, the EU had started an anti-trust investigation into Google's search monopoly and its practice of lowering the search rankings for competitors of various Google services.
"Google directly caused ProtonMail’s growth rate worldwide to be reduced by over 25% for over 10 months," Yen says. "This meant that ProtonMail’s income from users was also cut by 25%, putting financial pressure on our operations."
"We went from being able to cover all our monthly expenses to having to draw from our emergency reserve fund," Yen also adds. "The lost income and financial damage incurred as a result was several hundred thousand Swiss Francs (1 CHF = 1.01 USD), which will never be reimbursed."
Yen says that only the service's reputation and excellent service had helped it stay afloat, with users recommending ProtonMail to one another using word of mouth.
"Many other companies won’t be so fortunate," Yen writes. "This episode illustrates that Search Risk is serious, which is why we now agree with the European Commission that given Google’s dominant position in search, more transparency and oversight is critical."
A request for comment was sent to Google. The article will be updated with the company's statement on this incident if provided.
