Private users in Proton organizations
If you have a Proton for Business plan or a legacy Proton Visionary plan, you can create an organization and add users to it. These users can be either non-private users or private users.
By default, all users are non-private, which means any organization administrator can read their emails. This might be desirable for employee oversight and compliance reasons.
Only administrators can access the messages of your organization’s non-private users.
Proton can’t access the emails of ANY user of your organization, including non-private users.
As an administrator, you can designate a user as a private user when you add them or anytime later. A private user’s messages can only be accessed with that user’s login credentials. Administrators can’t access a private user’s messages.
Administrators can’t change a private user into a non-private user. To do this, you must delete the user account and recreate it.
If a private user loses or forgets their password, they must reset it using their recovery email address. An administrator can’t change their password for them.
How to designate a new user as a private user
When adding a new user, turn the Private switch on.
![Screenshot of adding a new private user](https://res.cloudinary.com/dbulfrlrz/images/w_467,h_833,c_scale/f_auto,q_auto/v1714638929/wp-pme/add-private-user_30603693eb/add-private-user_30603693eb.png?_i=AA)
How to designate an existing user as a private user
1. Log in to your administrator Proton Account at account.proton.me and go to Settings → All settings → Organization → Users and addresses. Click Edit in the Action column next to the user.
![Edit a user's role](https://res.cloudinary.com/dbulfrlrz/images/w_1370,h_671,c_scale/f_auto,q_auto/v1714638941/wp-pme/create-private-user_3060266f17/create-private-user_3060266f17.png?_i=AA)
2. Turn the Private switch on and click Submit (you may be asked to sign in again using your Proton password to continue).
![Make a user private](https://res.cloudinary.com/dbulfrlrz/images/w_576,h_481,c_scale/f_auto,q_auto/v1714638952/wp-pme/create-private-user-2_30601ba341/create-private-user-2_30601ba341.png?_i=AA)
How to set up an organization in Proton Mail
Step 1: Set up your custom domain(s) (optional for Proton Visionary)
Step 2: Create your organization
Step 3: Add new users to your organization
- User roles
- Private users (you are here)
- Catch-all email addresses