Hello Venomancer
I have spent a little time to review information in this regard and I have found this.
In relation to what I have been able to find in this regard, Switzerland is not part of or shows no interest in collaborating with any international agency or group that may jeopardize or analyze the privacy of its cybernauts or citizens, and in the vast number of cases are quite combative or reject de facto any attempt to spy, leaking or delivery of information to the international community about their cybernauts. There have been a few occasions when the Swiss legislation has had to allow some minimal leaks, and of those only a few very punctual ones have forced Proton to hand over information from its Mail, not from its VPN, and we are talking about 2018, I mean, 4 years have passed already and Proton has improved quite a lot over time, both with its services and regarding its company, so
1 this fact does not make Switzerland a collaborative country by any means,
2 something very bad or very specific you had to do as a cybernaut for both the swiss legislation and the company itself have turned their back on you, and
3 this problem has all the companies of the planet, because you can hardly fight against the law on which you create your company. If, for example, the state forces of Panama, under order, force NordVPN to register and give away x amount of information of x person, even if Nord wants to refuse to give them away, it has to comply with the law, taking into account that Panama is not part of the 14 eyes either.
If your point of criticism is that companies must obey the law and the forces of the state on which they are based, even against their will, I will tell you something: Unless you are looking for a "decentralized Mail" or a "decentralized VPN" or something like that, not even an online Mail or VPN service that you find, regardless of the country, is going to comply with your requirement, as clear and simple as that.
It's a pain, of course it is, but that's the way it is.
Another thing, regarding this comment: Venomancer
In that regard I can mention these two links where TOSDR analyze the terms and conditions (and privacy policy) of ProtonMail and ProtonVPN. I don't know if they are outdated, but well, that's life.
And one more thing, regarding this:
Also as a test, I used Prton VPN (free) to connect to Japan. When I went to dummy hotmail account & logged out, it redirects me to MSN Deutchland, which is quite concerning. How does hotmail know to direct me there instead of Japan?
There are many reasons why this could have happened, not just the VPN. For example, if you are logged into other services, if you have cookies, if your browser allows fingerprinting, if your browser or computer has and leaks certain information about your geographic location or language (windows usually does this). I use Proton (I don't use IVPN) and usually (not always) I get certain websites in my language, because either I have allowed it through specific cookies or because I haven't cleaned my browser metadata (history and active sessions for example, or because I haven't updated and checked for new updates and privacy tools). I don't think it's Proton's fault. Retest again this time with a new browser, or by cleaning and improving the privacy settings (for example in LibreWolf I always get everything in English (default language of the planet for some reason) when I use Proton.
Best regards.
