My browser says that my connection to ProtonMail is not secure (no padlock). Is this because the inbox doesn't use HTTPS or is my Opera VPN interfering with it?

VPN
1

My browser says that my connection to ProtonMail is not secure (no padlock). Is this because the inbox doesn’t use HTTPS or is my Opera VPN interfering with it?

2

Opera VPN is the opposite of private. They track everything.

Also, this is an issue to do with mixed content (http and https links) and Opera sucks at telling you that part.

3

This doesn’t seem right. You shouldn’t be able to connect to ProtonMail via http. Is this still the case if you reload the page? (CTRL + F5)

4

I was planning on getting the ProtonVPN soon anyways. I just wanted to figure out if the VPN was causing this or if it would let my emails leak because of the connection.

5

In html emails are also links to Images (for example). These images are mostly integrated with a http connection, so the browser tells you, that not all connections are secure on this website.

6

Opera is owned by a Chinese company, this government has complete access to the companies data. If you’re using the browser/VPN you are being tracked

Edit: typo

7

When I refresh the page it shows the padlock again but it disappears within a few seconds or when I click on another email.

8

Might as well change to a non shit browser like Firefox.

9

Might be interesting to test with this link from the ProtonVPN site.

https://www.ipleak.net/

What does it show?

10

Okay, that kind of explains it. Opera’s way of showing what’s going on is kinda bad… Here’s how Firefox shows the same thing for example: https://i.imgur.com/M37zW2e.png

So what happens here is that you have remote content on automatic load. So as soon as you click on a mail that contains embedded images, your browser automatically loads them. If those images are served over http however instead of https, your connection is not https only anymore and therefore insecure. All connections to ProtonMail are still secure, but connections to other servers may not be.

Conclusion: It has nothing to do with the VPN, the problem is with the Email you opened and your settings.

Edit: Just a follow up question: Does it also disappear after reloading when you don’t click on an Email? Because then there’s another problem.

11

You seem to be right, it stays until I click an email with pictures. I switched my settings to manually loading remote content and the padlock stayed until I clicked to load pictures.

Thanks for the help.

12

I completely agree, nice diagnosis.