Are your emails and attachments safe from prying eyes?
Unless you are using a secure email service that respects your privacy, the answer is probably no. Most large email providers, such as Gmail and Yahoo, do not respect the privacy of your inbox. For example,
- Google is adding ever more advertisements into your Gmail Promotions section. We’re also seeing reports that some people are finding ads interspersed between messages within their Gmail Inbox.
- Gmail was caught giving third parties full access to user emails and also tracking all of your purchases.
- Advertisers have been allowed to scan Yahoo and AOL accounts to “identify and segment potential customers by picking up on contextual buying signals, and past purchases.”
- Yahoo has been caught scanning emails in real time for US surveillance agencies.
While Gmail does allow users to opt out of some invasive features, the basic business model of these services revolves around data collection.
Big-name email services put lots of money into security, but they are also large targets and not invulnerable. A while back, the big news was the ease with which hackers were able to compromise thousands of Microsoft Exchange email servers. You might well be safer using a smaller, less well-known email service.
Another concern is where your email service is located and how this may affect your data and privacy. Some jurisdictions have laws to protect data privacy (Switzerland), while others have laws in place that erode it (the US and Australia). We’ll cover this in more detail below.
On a positive note, there is a relatively simple solution for keeping your inbox more secure: switch to a secure email provider that respects your privacy.
What is the best secure email service in 2023?
With so many different types of users, there is no single “best secure email” service that will be the top choice for everyone.
While some may prioritize maximum security and strong encryption, others may want convenience and simplicity with user-friendly apps for all devices.
Here are just a few factors to consider when switching to a secure email provider:
- Jurisdiction – Where is the service located and how does this affect user privacy? Where is your data physically stored?
- PGP support – Some secure email providers support PGP, while others do not use PGP due to its vulnerabilities and weaknesses.
- Import feature – Can you import your existing emails and contacts?
- Email apps – Due to encryption, many secure email services cannot be used with third-party email clients, but some also offer dedicated apps.
- Encryption – Are the emails end-to-end encrypted in transit? Are emails and attachments encrypted at rest?
- Features – Some features you may want to consider are contacts, calendars, file storage, inbox search, collaboration tools, and support for DAV services.
- Security – What are the provider’s security standards and policies?
- Privacy – How does the email service protect your privacy? What data is being collected, for how long, and why?
- Threat model – How much privacy and security do you need and which service best fits those needs?
The goal of this guide is to help you find the best secure email solution for your unique needs.
This list is not in rank order. (Choose the best secure email service for you based on your own unique needs!)
Here are the most secure email providers that protect your privacy.
1. Proton Mail – Secure email in Switzerland
| Based in | Switzerland |
| Storage | 15-500 GB |
| Price | $3.33/mo. |
| Free Tier | Up to 1 GB |
| Website | Proton.me |
Proton Mail is a Switzerland-based email service that enjoys a great reputation in the privacy community. It was started by a team of academics working at MIT and CERN in 2014. Shortly thereafter, it was promoted in American media as “the only email system the NSA can’t access” – which was around the time Lavabit was shut down for not cooperating with the US government.
Looking at the service itself, Proton Mail has a lot going for it. It utilizes PGP encryption standards for email and stores all messages and attachments encrypted at rest on Swiss servers. Proton Mail has a unique feature for “self-destructing messages” and they have also added address verification and full PGP support.
Regarding encryption, however, it’s important to note that Proton Mail does not encrypt the subject lines of emails or certain metadata, inherent limitations of the PGP standard. Most of the email services we discuss here use PGP, but I wouldn’t count on any of them to keep me safe from the NSA or their counterparts in other major countries.
Additionally, the Proton Mail search function can only search subject lines within your inbox, but not the actual content of your emails. This is another functional limitation that comes from integrating more encryption and security into the service.
Proton Mail does offer some great apps for mobile devices (Android and iOS). You can also use Proton Mail with third-party apps through the Proton Mail Bridge feature (restricted to paid users).
Overall Proton Mail is a well-regarded email provider and should be a great secure email option for most users. Switzerland remains a strong privacy jurisdiction that is not a member of any surveillance alliances.
Note: Proton Mail is now integrated into the Proton suite of services. The full suite includes Proton Mail, Proton Calendar, Proton Drive, and Proton VPN. You can learn more about these products in our full Proton Mail review.
+ Pros
- End-to-end (E2E) and zero-access encryption for Email, Calendar, and Contact information
- Operates under Swiss jurisdiction
- All data stored on servers in Switzerland
- Apps for Android and iOS mobile devices
- Web client, encryption algorithms, Android and iOS code are all open source
- Support for custom domains
- Strips IP address from emails
- Can be used with third-party email clients through the Proton Mail Bridge feature
- Can import contacts and emails
– Cons
- Proton Mail does not encrypt email subject lines
- Sometimes requires personal information for verification of new accounts
Check out Proton Mail here >>
See our Proton Mail review for more info.
2. Mailfence – Fully-featured secure email in Belgium
| Based in | Belgium |
| Storage | 5-50 GB |
| Price | €3.50/mo. |
| Free Tier | Up to 500 MB |
| Website | Mailfence.com |
Mailfence is a fully-featured secure email provider offering calendar and contacts functionality, file storage, and PGP encryption support. It is based in Belgium, which is a good privacy jurisdiction with strict data protection laws.
For those wanting full PGP control and interoperability, without plugins or add-ons, Mailfence is a solid choice. Whether you are a personal user or you need a secure email solution for your business or team, Mailfence likely has all the features and options you’d want.
While many secure email services sacrifice features and functionality for security, you can have it all with Mailfence. This makes Mailfence a great alternative to full email and productivity suites, such as G Suite or Office 365.
In testing everything out for the Mailfence review, I found it to work very well with an intuitive design, a slick layout, and tons of features. Mailfence also offers email and phone support, in addition to cryptocurrency payment options.
Note: Due to financial requirements imposed by Google, Mailfence has dropped support for POP/IMAP connections to Gmail servers.
+ Pros
- Offers end-to-end encryption and digital signatures
- Mobile and web apps
- Data is stored on Belgian servers
- Offers OpenPGP encryption
- Messages, Documents, Calendar, Contacts, and Groups
- SMTP, POP, and IMAP support
- Can synchronize with other email clients
- Supports password-protected messages with expiration time
- Removes IP addresses from mail headers
- OpenPGP user keystore
- Great user interface (recently updated)
- Cryptocurrency payment options
– Cons
- Logging of IP address and some other data
- Code is not open source
Website: https://Mailfence.com
See our Mailfence review for more info.
3. Tutanota – Private and secure email in Germany
| Based in | Germany |
| Storage | 1 – 1,000 GB |
| Price | €1.00/mo. |
| Free Tier | Up to 1 GB |
| Website | Tutanota.com |
Tutanota is a Germany-based secure email service run by a small team of privacy enthusiasts, with no outside investors or owners. Although it is not as widely known as Proton Mail, Tutanota is a serious player among secure email providers. Its hybrid encryption system overcomes some of the drawbacks of PGP, and your privacy rights are protected by the GDPR and other pro-privacy EU regulations.
Note: Tutanota claims that their encryption can be updated/strengthened if necessary against quantum-computer attacks. Here’s the latest on quantum encryption from Tutanota.
All messages in your inbox, contacts, and calendar are encrypted at rest on servers in Germany. For sending encrypted emails with Tutanota, you have two options:
- Emailing another Tutanota user, which encrypts everything automatically (asymmetric encryption)
- When sending an email to someone outside of Tutanota, the user receives a link to the message and a password key for encryption/decryption purposes (symmetric encryption). The outstanding feature here is that Tutanota establishes an external mailbox for that particular contact, where all the exchanged messages are securely encrypted. This proves to be quite useful, especially in a business context.
While Tutanota uses high encryption standards and is arguably one of the most secure email providers anywhere, it also comes with some tradeoffs. This includes no support for PGP, IMAP, POP, or SMTP. Additionally, you cannot import existing emails into your encrypted Tutanota inbox.
To make up for the lack of IMAP support, Tutanota has built its own open source desktop clients for Windows, Linux, and macOS, with offline mode included. This means that you can access your emails, calendars, and contacts even when not having access to the web.
If you are looking for a transparent, high-security email provider run by a team of privacy enthusiasts, Tutanota is a solid choice.
+ Pros
- Encrypted messages (including Subject lines) Address Book, Inbox Rules and Filters, Search Index, encrypted at rest and stored on German servers
- Can search body of encrypted messages
- Can send encrypted messages to non-users
- Strips IP address from emails
- Desktop, mobile, and web apps
- Open source code (including mobile apps)
- Great apps for mobile devices
- Free accounts with 1 GB of storage
- Encrypted calendar with iCard support
- Encrypted contacts
- Inbox rules with Spam filter
- Multiple email addresses (aliases)
- Support for custom domains and other price+ features
- Discounts and additional support for non-profits
- Publishes regular Transparency Reports
– Cons
- Does not work with PGP
- Currently no way to import existing emails
- Will not work with 3rd-party email clients
Website: https://Tutanota.com
See our Tutanota review for more info.
4. Mailbox.org – Private email in Germany
| Based in | Germany |
| Storage | 2 – 100 GB |
| Price | €1.00/mo. |
| Free Tier | None |
| Website | Mailbox.org |
One German secure email service you should definitely consider is Mailbox.org. It provides robust security for your email, but it also functions as an all-inclusive productivity suite, similar to Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365). It offers a huge lineup of features, including Mail, Calendar, Address Book, Drive (cloud storage), Tasks, Portal, Text, Spreadsheet, Presentation, and Webchat. Impressively, Mailbox.org still has a user-friendly interface and design despite all the features.
When choosing a secure email provider, you often have to choose between features and security. With Mailbox.org, you can arguably get the best of both worlds. From the security and encryption side, Mailbox.org offers full PGP support and options to easily encrypt all your data at rest on their secure servers in Germany. You can also use Mailbox.org with mobile apps and third-party email clients.
Lastly, Mailbox.org is very affordable, with basic plans starting at only €1 per month and going up for more storage and features. You can pick up a free 30-day trial if you want to test-drive this privacy-focused email provider.
Note: Mailbox.org does receive requests for information from “public authorities.” In 2022, they received 55 requests for information, and ultimately rejected about 13% of them. They responded to the rest of them as required by law.
+ Pros
- PGP support (server-side or E2E through Mailvelope app)
- Company and servers located in Germany with strong privacy protections
- HSTS and PFS for messages in transit
- Protected against man-in-the-middle attacks
- Message and spam filters
- Virus protection
- Full text search
- POP, IMAP, SMTP, ActiveSync support
- vCard, CardDAV, CalDav support
- Messages are encrypted at rest
- Supports custom domains
- Mobile apps for some of the Office features
- Open source
– Cons
- No mobile email clients (but can be used with third-party email clients)
- Some tracking during registration
- PGP encryption leaves message subject and metadata exposed
Website: https://Mailbox.org/
Check out our Mailbox.org review for more details.
5. Posteo – Privacy-focused email in Germany
| Based in | Germany |
| Storage | 2 – 20 GB |
| Price | €1.00/mo. |
| Free Tier | None |
| Website | Posteo.de |
Posteo is yet another German email service. It provides strong privacy and security to its users, and in many ways is similar to Mailbox.org. Both are comprehensive email providers that employ PGP encryption. They even charge similar prices. However, Posteo distinguishes itself in a few significant aspects:
- It does not support custom domains.
- There is no designated spam folder (emails are either sent to the inbox or not accepted).
- There are no trial or free versions, which is somewhat offset by the reasonable prices they charge.
Posteo really makes an effort to protect the privacy of its users. IP addresses are automatically stripped from emails, no logs are kept, and they offer strong encryption standards. In short, this email takes security and privacy very seriously.
Posteo also supports completely anonymous registration and anonymous payments – even allowing you to send cash in the mail for no digital trail. (We see this trend with VPN services as well.) And if you pay with a credit card, PayPal, or some other digital method, they manually separate account details from payment info.
+ Pros
- Mail, Calendar, Contacts, and Notes are encrypted at rest with OpenPGP on secure servers in Germany
- Configurable spam filter
- Migration service for moving from another email service to Posteo
- Subject, headers, body, metadata, and attachments are encrypted
- Includes Messages, Calendar, Contacts (Address Book), and Notes
- Completely Open Source
- Strong commitment to privacy, sustainable energy, and other social initiatives
- Self-financed; good track record (operating since 2009)
- No logs, IP address stripping, secure email storage with daily backups
- Allows anonymous (cash) payments
- Supports SMTP, POP, and IMAP protocols
– Cons
- Custom domains not supported; no “.com” options available
- No spam folder (spam emails are either rejected or delivered to regular inbox)
- No trial or free version
- Cryptocurrency payments not supported
Website: https://Posteo.de/
See the Posteo review for more info.
6. Runbox – Private and sustainable email in Norway
| Based in | Norway |
| Storage | 2 – 50 GB |
| Price | $1.31/mo. |
| Free Tier | 30 day trial |
| Website | Runbox.com |
Runbox is a Norwegian company that has been in the email business for over 20 years. Norway is a good secure-email jurisdiction, with a strong legal framework for privacy. All Runbox servers are located in secure Norwegian data centers, running on clean, renewable, hydropower energy.
One unique feature of Runbox is that it gives you 100 aliases to use with your account. Secure file storage is also included, with different pricing tiers. Runbox fully supports SMTP, POP, and IMAP protocols and can be used with third-party email clients. They released Runbox 7 over a year ago, and are improving it all the time, with a massive number of updates taking place so far this year. which is a webmail client, but they do not offer custom mobile or desktop clients.
Unlike some other secure email providers, Runbox does not have a built-in option for encrypting your entire mailbox. And while you can use PGP with Runbox, it is not yet built into the platform. Another drawback is that Runbox does not offer a built-in calendar, but this feature may be included in Version 7 (when released).
Runbox offers 30-day free trials and makes importing your existing emails simple with the guides on their site. They also go the extra mile by giving you a 60-day money-back guarantee so you can really get a sense of whether this service suits you before getting locked into a subscription.
+ Pros
- IP addresses stripped from messages
- Includes Webmail, Contacts, and Files
- Servers run on renewable energy
- Supports SMTP, POP, and IMAP protocols
- Synchronizes with other email clients
- GDPR compliant
- Norway has strong data protection laws
- 100 email aliases per mailbox
- Custom domain names on some paid accounts
- Numerous payment methods accepted (including cash and cryptocurrencies)
– Cons
- Browser-based; no desktop or mobile apps
- Not open source
- Data not encrypted within the Runbox system or at rest
- No business-specific features
Website: https://Runbox.com
Check out our Runbox review here.
7. CounterMail – Private and secure Swedish email service
| Based in | Sweden |
| Storage | 4 GB+ |
| Price | $4.83/mo. |
| Free Tier | 7 day free trial |
| Website | CounterMail.com |
Next up on our list is CounterMail, a secure email provider based in Sweden. CounterMail has been operating for over 10 years with a philosophy to “offer the most secure online email service on the Internet, with excellent free support.”
Note: Before we go any further, you should know that registering for CounterMail currently requires an invitation from a premium CounterMail user. If you don’t know someone who already uses this service, you are not welcome right now.
CounterMail uses OpenPGP encryption with 4,096-bit encryption keys. They protect their users from identity leaks and Man-In-The-Middle attacks with RSA and AES-CBC encryption on top of SSL. Unfortunately, they do not have their own mobile or desktop apps.
In order to ensure your privacy, they keep no logs and they store your mail on diskless servers. Countermail anonymizes email headers and also strips the sender’s IP address. All emails and attachments are stored encrypted at rest using OpenPGP on servers in Sweden.
While CounterMail is a bit more expensive than some other secure email providers, they explain this price difference comes from using only high-quality servers and implementing strong security measures. It may not have all the frills, but CounterMail is a serious security-focused email provider with a 10+ year track record.
+ Pros
- Supports cryptocurrency payments
- Secure, built-in password manager
- All emails and attachments stored encrypted on no-logs, secure servers in Sweden
- Custom domain support
- Message filter and autoresponder features
- Uses RSA, AES-CBC, and SSL encryption to protect against leaks and MITM attacks
– Cons
- Design and UI feels outdated
- More expensive than other secure email options
- Now requires an invite to register
https://CounterMail.com
8. Kolab Now – Fully-featured Swiss email
| Based in | Switzerland |
| Storage | 2 GB+ |
| Price | $5.47/mo. |
| Free Tier | 30 day trial |
| Website | KolabNow.com |
Based in Switzerland, Kolab Now is a private email service offering lots of features and full email suite functionality. A Kolab Now subscription includes email, contacts, calendars, scheduling, collaboration/sharing tools, and cloud file storage. Right now they are running a public beta of their voice and videoconferencing system. All of the features and options make Kolab Now an excellent choice for business users, teams, and privacy-focused individuals.
While Kolab now does offer numerous features and support for all major operating systems and devices, it also does not offer as much encryption for those who want the highest levels of security. End-to-end encryption for emails is available but not built-in and emails are not stored encrypted at rest.
The price is also on the higher end, especially if you want access to all features and more storage. However, for those wanting a feature-rich email suite hosted in Switzerland, Kolab Now may be a good fit.
+ Pros
- Accepts cryptocurrency payments
- Full support for POP, SMTP, and IMAP
- Switzerland jurisdiction with strong privacy protection
- Full email suite with numerous features to replace Gmail, Office365, etc.
- Support for custom domains, teams, and business users
- End-to-end (E2E) encryption is available, but not built in
– Cons
- Email not encrypted at rest (but stored in high-security Swiss data center)
- Expensive
Website: https://KolabNow.com
9. StartMail – Private email hosted in The Netherlands
| Based in | The Netherlands |
| Storage | 10-20 GB |
| Price | $3.00/mo. |
| Free Tier | 7 day trial |
| Website | StartMail.com |
StartMail is a secure email service brought to you by the team behind Startpage, a private search engine based in the Netherlands. While there was surprising news about System1 investing in Startpage, StartMail is its own unique entity under StartMail B.V. – a company operating under Dutch law in The Netherlands.
The Netherlands is a good jurisdiction for privacy and StartMail aims to keep as little data as possible to run their operations (see privacy policy). Unlike most secure email providers, StartMail handles encryption server-side, rather than in the browser – see their white paper explaining why. So if E2EE (End-to-End encryption) is a top priority for you, StartMail isn’t a great option.
StartMail allows users to utilize PGP encryption with emails also being encrypted at rest on their Dutch servers. One cool feature of StartMail is they give you the ability to create temporary, disposable email addresses “on the fly” to use with different services. IMAP and SMTP are also supported if you want to use StartMail with third-party apps such as Thunderbird.
In May of 2023, SmartMail doubled the amount of storage for all their plans to 20GB without increasing the cost, thereby giving all their users a nice gift.
+ Pros
- Can create temporary, disposable email addresses
- Accepts cryptocurrency payment
- IMAP and SMTP support; can use custom domains
- Headers and IP address stripped from all emails
- Accounts come with 10 GB file storage
– Cons
- No custom mobile apps
- Not open source
- Higher prices
Website: https://www.StartMail.com
10. Soverin – Basic private email in the Netherlands
| Based in | The Netherlands |
| Storage | 25 GB |
| Price | €3.25/mo. |
| Free Tier | No |
| Website | Soverin.net |
Soverin is a basic secure email service at a reasonable price. Plans come with 25 GB of storage and custom domains are supported. All data is stored on servers in Germany. Soverin strips IP addresses from headers while also using strong encryption standards, although email is not stored encrypted at rest by default.
For those wanting a basic private email service with lots of storage that is protected by European privacy laws, Soverin may be a good choice. It can also be used with third-party email clients and importing old emails is relatively simple.
+ Pros
- 25 GB of data storage for all plans
- Data protected under Dutch privacy laws and GDPR
- Can be used with third-party email clients
– Cons
- No custom mobile apps
- Not open source
- No built-in encryption options
Website: https://Soverin.net
Email jurisdiction and data privacy
Where your email service is located (jurisdiction) can seriously impact the security of your data. Depending on your threat model, this could be a major consideration. For an overview of jurisdiction and privacy, you may want to read our article on the Five/9/14 Eyes surveillance alliances.
Here are some reasons to pay attention to jurisdiction.
United States (leading member of the Five Eyes)
Tech companies in the US can be forced to give government agencies direct access to their servers for “extensive, in-depth surveillance on live communications and stored information” – as explained in the PRISM surveillance program. Data requests can also be accompanied by gag orders, which forbid the company from disclosing what’s going on (see also National Security Letters).
Several instances have been reported where American email service providers were compelled to surrender information. In a notable case, Lavabit chose to shut down the business instead of disclosing user data. Riseup, another email service provider in the US, was forced to hand over data to law enforcement agencies.
There are a few known cases of US email providers being forced to give up data. In one prominent example, Lavabit decided to shut down the business rather than give up user data. Another US email provider, Riseup, was also forced to give up data to authorities.
After exhausting our legal options, Riseup recently chose to comply with two sealed warrants from the FBI, rather than facing contempt of court (which would have resulted in jail time for Riseup birds and/or termination of the Riseup organization).
There was a “gag order” that prevented us from disclosing even the existence of these warrants until now. This was also the reason why we could not update our “Canary” [warrant canary that warns users about these events].
Europe in general is more privacy-focused than some locations
Once again politicians in Europe are trying to find an excuse to limit or ban the use of encryption by their people. This time around, the argument is that encryption must be banned to fight child abuse. Once again it is up to tech companies including Tutanota and Mailfence to protect the privacy rights of the populace. In April, a group of companies sent an open letter to the European Parliament arguing against the mass surveillance that the elimination of encryption would be meant to enable.
How this will turn out is unclear, but the possibility of the EU banning encryption casts doubts on the viability of any secure email service based in the EU.
We’ll let you know what happens with this.
All email providers must comply with the law
While these examples may seem alarming, the truth is that all email providers must comply with legal requirements in the country they are operating in. For example, Proton Mail, a Switzerland email provider, has also been forced to log IP addresses and disable accounts by valid court orders, as they disclose in their transparency report.
Note: If you are concerned about your email service logging your IP address, then simply use a good VPN service. Two of the top providers we have tested are NordVPN and ExpressVPN.
Considering everything, some jurisdictions are much better than others, so choose wisely. As a general rule, I’d still avoid email services in the US, and perhaps other Five Eyes jurisdictions.
Want secure email? Pay for it.
The unlimited “free” email business model is fundamentally flawed. It offers a free service, which is used to collect data and thereby monetize the user and make money on ads. With these privacy-abusing “free” services, you are actually paying for the product with your data.
In contrast, here we recommend privacy-friendly, secure, ad-free email services. While some of these private email services offer limited free subscriptions, you will need to upgrade to a paid plan for more storage and premium features (the freemium business model).
Fortunately, you can “vote with your dollars” by supporting these privacy-respecting businesses and upgrade to paid accounts. This will help secure email providers to grow, improve, and serve more people with an ethical business model that does not rely on exploiting their users’ data.
Secure email shortcomings and PGP flaws
Most secure email solutions mentioned in this guide utilize PGP for end-to-end encrypted email. PGP, which stands for Pretty Good Privacy and was invented back in 1991 by Phil Zimmermann.
PGP flaws – While PGP is considered a trustworthy, secure encryption method, there have been some flaws in implementing PGP that have made headlines recently – see also the EFAIL vulnerabilities.
While the news did attract lots of attention, the “flaws” were mainly limited to the incorrect implementation of PGP by third parties. To my knowledge, this did not affect the secure email providers mentioned in this guide.
Limited Use – Another fundamental problem with adopting secure email is that few people are willing to go through the hassle of PGP key management, encryption, decryption, etc. There are some solutions, to this, however, and by some measures encrypted email usage continues to grow.
Many providers address this issue by making encryption automatic and seamless. Tutanota, for example, uses built-in AES encryption that automatically encrypts emails between Tutanota users, including headers, subject line, body, and attachments. They also provide a secure, two-way communication contact form called Secure Connect.
Vulnerabilities – Even when using a secure browser, there are still vulnerabilities to consider with browser-based email clients. Phil Zimmermann gave an interview highlighting some of these shortcomings:
“The browser is not a terribly safe place to run code. Browsers have a large attack surface,” he said. Wherever encryption and decryption take place, though, it’s a vast improvement on no encryption. But even encrypting messages may not be enough, depending on the threat model. The very nature of email makes it vulnerable.
“Email has an enormous attack surface,” Zimmermann said. “You’ve not only got cryptographic issues but you’ve got things like spam and phishing and loading images from a server somewhere that might have things embedded inside.”
On a positive note, however, there are many options for securing and hardening your browser – see the secure browser and Firefox privacy guides. Furthermore, most secure email providers offer protection against these attack vectors by blocking email images by default while also utilizing virus filters.
Keep in mind, however, that non-browser email clients can also be problematic – potentially revealing unique information about your operating system (user agent) as well as your IP address and location.
Regardless of these limitations, using a secure email provider will help keep large tech companies from harvesting your email data for third parties.
Secure email vs secure messaging apps
Depending on your threat model, you may also want to consider using secure messaging apps, which do not have all of the vulnerabilities discussed above with email.
We have tested many different encrypted and secure messaging apps and compiled a list of our favorites. Here are a few reviews of some of the best options we’ve tested:
Encrypted messaging apps generally offer a higher level of security over email, plus they are much easier to use than PGP email encryption.
Finally, encrypted messaging apps are also convenient for back-and-forth conversations, document sharing, and collaboration with others. For more information, check out our roundup guide on the best secure messaging apps.
Always use a good VPN with email
One fundamental problem with email is that it can expose your IP address and location to third parties, by design.
While some secure email services strip IP addresses and conceal metadata, many others do not. And as we saw with the Proton Mail logging case, email services may be forced to log user IP addresses by valid court orders, without disclosing any information to the user. We’ve seen this with email providers in the US, Germany, and even Switzerland.
Finally, there’s also the fact that many email services keep logs for security, which may include user IP addresses, connection times, and other metadata. Of course, whenever you have logs, this data could end up with third parties (for various reasons).
To effectively conceal your IP address and location, you will need to use a good VPN (Virtual Private Network) service. Popular VPN services, such as ExpressVPN and NordVPN, offer VPN clients (apps) for all major operating systems and devices.
A VPN creates a secure tunnel between your device and a VPN server, encrypting your traffic and concealing your real IP address and location. The VPN will encrypt and anonymize your internet traffic, while you carry on with business as usual. Some of the larger providers, such as NordVPN and Surfshark, offer apps for all major operating systems and devices, along with large server networks around the world.
Because a VPN offers significant privacy and security benefits, it’s a smart idea to use one whenever you’re online. Internet providers in many countries are recording user browsing history by logging DNS requests. Depending on local laws, this information could then be sold to advertisers or handed to government agencies in countries with mandatory data retention laws. With a VPN, your DNS requests are encrypted and handled by the VPN server and unreadable to your ISP or other parties.
For more info, see these best VPN services.
Conclusion on secure and private email services in 2023
Regardless of your circumstances, opting for a secure and private email service is a wise move to protect your privacy. Major email providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft don’t always prioritize your privacy, so you have to look after it yourself. Paying your money to one of our recommended email services means you won’t be paying your privacy to some “free” email service.
Once you switch to one of these email services your private communications will be much more secure. Then all you need to do is avoid non-technical attacks, like the typical email scams that never seem to go away.
See the main privacy tools guide for other privacy and security essentials.
We also have a guide on encrypting email.
And if you want more info on these secure email providers, you could check out the reviews below:
- Proton Mail Review
- Tutanota Review
- Mailfence Review
- Mailbox.org Review
- Hushmail Review
- Posteo Review
- Fastmail Review
- Runbox Review
Have you used one of these secure email providers? Feel free to leave your feedback/review of the service below.
This secure email guide was last updated on May 30, 2023.
At a digital safety presentation I went to recently the presenter recommended having multiple email addresses for different purposes eg family & friends, online shopping, government and financial etc. This article recommends the same – https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/02/13/why-every-person-needs-at-least-four-email-accounts/?sh=26d6a1157006. I had thought to use an alias but this doesn’t seem to achieve the objective of fully separating the online roles an individual has. Do you have any comments about aliases vs accounts and also having multiple accounts for different purposes? Also, if I set up multiple email accounts would you recommend they all come from the same provider, or from different providers? One thing I’m wondering is if I start using a Proton account (say) for things like government websites it telegraphs to them that I may have something to hide! I guess, my concern about my privacy should override any concern about what I think the government thinks about me. What do you think? Thanks.
All good Mail questions with no experts ready to weigh in here I’m thinking? But let’s try simple reasoning on a few things not so clearly thought out in your questions. How does the e-verse see us, log us and retain our data? What remnants are then stuck to us by ways of our browser, our device and any user profiles – yes even our OS systems and Sims we carry around?
Goal being to – use multiple email addresses for different purposes – with or without – achieving the objective of fully separating all the online roles an individual has, verus maybe then any enployable aliases and/or VPN tools.
Would you not need to have a dedicated device for each perceived persona your wishing to emulate? How futile is it to replace (software) as hardware to perform the same tasks?
To me they have dope on us like down to our DNA level somehow in and with all the means we interact with the e-verse. To achieve the seperation you mentioned becomes a great task for law biding Digital Citizens when any Cyber Civics rules lack being acknowledged nor established for the e-verse.
Again to me the use of a trusted – proven encrypted mail service, user enabled encryption for the various parts of that service. Serves us well from just one service instead of having multiple mail accounts for different user purposes. As for seeing my suggeted as having all your eggs in one basket yes it is, but I’m doing nothing illegal and then again nothing is 100% dititally safe. Relying on the record of the mail service and it’s encryption as my user benefit. But I use ZOHO so what do I know?
What is your opinion on Sekur Private Data (former GlobalX Data) email/messaging service based out of Switzerland?
We have not tested it for a review yet.
Hi,
I am interested in finding a more secure, or rather more private email service that will not bombard my inbox with junk mail. I am totally and absolutely fed up with gmail selling my email to an unspeakable amount of advertisers, inundating my inbox , forcing me to go through them to avoid deleting important mails, spending countless hours cleaning my inbox on a regular basis.
I am looking for a paid service that will not have a vested interest in selling mailing list to advertisers, and the lists of servers are not telling me clearly who to choose here in the US, most of them are in Europe, which is fine, but I would like more guidance or direct recommendation as to who would serve an individual better with a basic email need, perhaps less than 50 mails a month, approx., and cannot over emphasize that my main goal is to NOT receive unwanted mails from commercial and political interest groups.
Can you help me find one?
Thank you in advance
I’ve been using Fastmail (Australia) for years–no problems based on your stated concerns. Sven doesn’t like it because of concerns about snooping by Big Brother. Otherwise, if you’re not that concerned about that, it may meet your needs, and the cost is reasonable as far as I’m concerned.
I am looking for a paid service that will not have a vested interest in selling mailing list to advertisers, and the lists of servers are not telling me clearly who to choose here in the US…recommendation as to who would serve an individual better with a basic email need…
These are US based but for – recommendation as to who would serve an individual better with a basic email need, they might be structured weird but usable once you learn their mail system’s that’s part of much more thats offered in each. These are offering a free tier at links.
https://skiff.com/individual-plans
scroll down to Forever Free Plan almost 1/2 page underneath the redbox TRY NOW
https://www.zoho.com/mail/zohomail-pricing.html?src=ft
ProtonMail does not support POP/SMTP without use of their Bridge appliance. https://proton.me/support/imap-smtp-and-pop3-setup
Mailfence also does not support POP/SMTP for their free accounts.
The Proton information needs to be updated:
Price: $4.99/mo (annual and bi-annual plans reduce this to $3.99/mo and $3.29/mo respectively)
Storage: 15-500 GB
Free Tier: Up to 1 GB
Website: proton.me (protonmail.com is no longer their primary domain)
Good catch, I made those corrections. There is a Black Friday sale going on now, so the price is even lower at $3.33 per month.
Sven Sir don’t you think Gmail has some security advantages too despite not being privacy friendly. Like Gmail provides great protection against spam and phishing and other targeted attacks. And phishing is a great threat to user security. Gmail has resources to provide such high level of security. And this service is likely to stick around for a long time compared to small providers whose long term prospects are doubtful. What do you think?
Yes, Gmail is secure, but certainly not private. As for email phishing and spam, common sense is the best protection (don’t click on questionable things in your inbox).
In the short summary of CyberFear it mentions: offshore servers (Poland) while their website states offshore servers are off the USA
So where are they actually located?
@Carrot not sure. CyberFear may be down or working on improvements. Their Reddit page hasn’t been updated in almost a year since the host posted some changes were coming. It may be taking longer than he thought.
https://www.reddit.com/user/cyberfear_com/
But WEBrate says they are online:
https://webrate.org/site/cyberfear.com/
Maybe worth a new modern look – –
There is a lot of legalese or there was some years back when checked ZOHO but that was, as it seemed because of their headquarters. Zoho Corporation is an Indian multinational technology company that makes web-based business tools. It is best known for the online office suite offering Zoho Office Suite. The company was founded in 1996 by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas and has a presence in seven locations with global headquarters in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, and corporate headquarters outside of Austin in Del Valle, Texas. Radha Vembu, Sridhar Vembu’s sister, owns a majority stake in the company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoho_Corporation
AS YOUR PERSONAL ELECTRONIC MAIL today,
Take control of your data with Zoho Mail, at Zoho Mail, your privacy is always their foremost priority. Their service is constantly evolving to better fulfill their commitment to your privacy. By employing industry standard privacy practices, they ensure the confidentiality of your data. With Zoho Mail, you’ll never have to look over your shoulder.
Access to your data is restricted:
Customer data is heavily guarded at Zoho Mail, even from our employees. In very rare cases, employees will require a certain level of access to data to resolve requests or complaints raised by customers. This access to obfuscated data or meta data is only given to few employees who have cleared security checks, and is tightly controlled by dedicated teams. Employees accessing such data are tracked and monitored in real-time.
https://www.zoho.com/mail/privacy.html?src=dd
FAQ:
Mail Only plans (Mail Lite and Mail Premium) are already available at a discounted price. If you’re a non-profit or a charitable organization, we have special pricing for you. To know your discount, please contact us at sales@zohocorp.com.
Since we already respect user privacy, we have a set of clear rules and strategy on how to process personal data. Over the years, we’ve demonstrated our commitment to this by consistently exceeding industry standards. We have no need to collect and process users’ personal information beyond what is required for the functioning of our products, and this will never change. We have a privacy-conscious culture here and GDPR is an opportunity for us to strengthen this even further.
Zoho Mail complies with HIPAA. You can read more details https://www.zoho.com/mail/hipaa.html?src=mailpricing
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, HIPAA (including the Privacy Rule, Security Rule, Breach Notification Rule, and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act), requires Covered Entities and Business Associates to take certain measures to protect health information that can identify an individual.
MAIL LITE $1/User /Month billed annually – 5 GB per user
MAIL LITE $1.25/User /Month billed annually – 10 GB per user
Service has the following to the MAIL LITE accounts:
Mail =
Email hosting for multiple domains
Domain aliases
Email routing
Email and Folder sharing
Streams – Collaboration tool
Offline access
NewSecurePass email
Email recall
eWidget and Developer Space
Tasks, Notes and Bookmarks
IMAP/ POP access in email clients
Huge Attachments upto 250 MB
Exchange Activesync
Mobile apps for iOS and Android
Calendar =
Shared calendars
Group Calendars
Appointment Scheduling
Calendar Sync
Calendar on mobileAccess your calendar from the Zoho Mail mobile application.
Brought in my own Namecheao domain and I seem to like everything so far with ZOHO’s MAIL LITE plans. I signed up for the MAIL FREE plan and it offers email hosting for a single domain.
You have to look for it as FREE but it’s found easy with the following title.
Forever Free Plan
Up to five users, 5GB/User, 25MB attachment limit.
Web access and free mobile apps*.
Email hosting for single domain.
So far Zoho beats my mail account @swisscows.email without a domain added there in swisscows.
Stylish, accessible, and secure: Zoho Mail’s newest features and enhancements
https://www.zoho.com/blog/mail/stylish-accessible-and-secure.html?src=lpbanner
https://youtu.be/gCL2-thhSy8
Any info on Sekur? They offer both email and messaging app. I think they came out in 2020 but I can’t find much on them outside of their website, sekur.com/en. (NB: I posted this question to the messaging app review too).
The article ignores a very important security issue – the responsiveness and friendliness of the support service. Everyone has problems, if they are solved – this is 90% of success. And vice versa – even the best service without an adequate support service will be problematic.
I am now choosing an alternative to Gmail and reading reviews on Trustpilot – Proton responds with standard phrases, this worries me.
addendum: ProtonMail Features & Customer Service sucks! I was a “Professional Account Holder for many Month and paid €8,00 per Month, for “Priority Support” as they state; which is non existing! When I had problems as Professional Account holder I emailed support several times I even put “PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNT HOLDER” in the subject line to stand out… the reply is generic not individual service and takes several days to even reply…. they are arrogant and unfriendly and still did not fix the issues… on being persistent; they even admitted that Customer Service cannot differentiate between Profession or Free users wow !! To create a Signature & Confidentiality Notice is a nightmare it never gets it right it never puts things in one line it scatters the text! To do a copy and paste while in working mode messes up your entire text and it cannot be fixed you best be typing in word first than copy & paste every over! Their printing feature sucks too, as it never prints out the entire email but it cuts if off a page 3 and page 1 is always empty. COMPARE that with Gmail: it is probably spying or prying but at least all their features & pritning work excellent!! daaa what kind of “PROTON” software designers are at work there? Why don’t they at least match the standard of Gmail? We can only hope that – aprat from the Subject Line – protonmail is fully-enrcypted but who knows? I am only using protonmail because it is allegedly 100% encrypted if you communicate with another protonmail user, but why is the Subject Line not encrypted beats me as it is a giveaway and can be changed by design! Another concern is that they are funded by the EU, hello…. they claim to be a Swiss Company under Swiss jurisdiction, why do they take money (over 1-Million) from the EU which is against privacy, and we all know anyone investing in a company will have a word in what is going on etc… Also they use a “.com” and not a “.ch” and all .com are under US-jurisdiction no ifs or butts, daaa, I made several complaints and intelligent oriented solutions to the BOARD of DIRECTORS, they don’t really care they hide; they never answer; if they answer it is BOBOTIC; they could be making millions more if they would only listen to some real smart people. Since I never got Service worth the money I paid for Professional I cancelled and went back to a free version it is the same thing only limited MB storage so i had to delete tons of data. I wonder how many customers they lose because their Professional Service sucks? CONCLUSION: the above should be carefully considered and I can back everything up to be true! I do continue to use protonmail in good faith hoping that they do what they claim and because i have friends who also use protonmail, but as an Entrepreneur & Lawyer, i dislike it immensely when good people & profitable proposals are completely ignored, as that is unethical-business-conduct to say the least. bona fide by i: anonymous Entrepreneur & Lawyer; sui juris, without prejudice; all rights worldwide reserved.
Lot’s of good information provided and discussed which is greatly appreciated. I like the basis of Telios discussed in the comments as a first choice. Can anyone confirm reliability vs Mailfence as asecond choice ?
To me has great claims but yet falls back on saying still in a beta release as usual excuse to many questions-comments. I prefer 80% being usable before anything is marketed wanting my money.
Can you make a list of the best private/secure emails from companies NOT based in Europe? I realize that there are good reasons why Europe has some of the more well-known privacy centric email providers, but surely there are other countries in the world that provide some alternatives?
Check out Gold Comet
Good one, based in USA, the leading 5 Eyes country.
Rob – noone
So being a US citizen and using a privacy secured email (encrypted) service. HQ in the US is a good thing and actually better on users. Because just as any other online business in most certainly another country that has to abide by that countries laws. Here the US citizens, we are able to fight in the country that set in motion the enforcement of any digital crime we be accused of.
You can’t use anything digital and the hive of web2 networks without a trail so generated by doing so. Mostly outside of any advertising networks (as others & 14 governments monitors all), for you and the others to earn the target on your back(s).
So yes any government can stifle and hurt locker you. Whatever the union/agreement with the US they have is not of concern – if the US wants you they have or influence the power in bringing you to answer for the deed.
WAKEUP Call. . .The Web must be looked at and seen as a river running across the globe connecting many, but as well it’s being monitored to give precedence of enforcing laws with teeth. Like laws there of a country against global money laundering, counterfeiting, and human slavery to name some. If not then there couldn’t be prospering counties all doing business altogether.
The digital circle is a lot small as technology advances, I see you call out but don’t give any better suggestion. It is looking as if your prejudice about something?
So why would you suggest choosing an email service in the leading 5 Eyes Country, where the Prism program, the NSA and many other interlopers abound?.
@JMO (there’s no Reply button for his post). Dude it’s REEEEALLY time for you to WAKE UP, **ALL** the crimes you mentioned are being committed by the puppeteers who own our politicians, the politicians who are at work to implement Klaus Schwab’s promises, “by 2030 you’ll own nothing”, “by 2030 privacy will be a luxury good”. They constantly accuse others of their own crimes, e.g. they censor top level scientists and spread disinformation while accusing others to spread disinformation. Money laundering?! _Banks_ themselves have always being doing it for our beloved politicians, their masters OWN all major banks (and are now openly and illegally using them as a weapon, see the seizing of funds of bitchute.com). Once in a while they get caught, e.g. J.P.Morgan. got a fine for money laundering just a few months after accusing cryptocoins to be a tool for money laundering, when the total market cap of all cryptoassets was a tiny fraction of the smallest firm quoted in Wall Street, absolutely insufficient for their needs of drug+organs+children+weapons trafficking. They are even trying to enforce the idea that the State has the right to impose “sanitary treatments”, and push to us these lethal jabs for something which can be treated in hours with economic, safe, effective drugs, all the contrary of this jabs. So, our politicians and their masters are the ones who REALLY need to be watched (behind bars if they don’t get hung for crimes against humanity), not common citizens.
Gold Comet is US based company! Us is member of 14 eyes alliance!!!
I Would Reccomend Trace Add On For Mozilla Firefox
Just get tutanota with custom domains for your company. Pick a name you like. The info is on their website. If you care enough to spend a few minutes…..maybe you’ll spend them before you badmouth tutanota any more, eh?
I use Protonmail and Mail2Tor on Tor.
I tried to reset my Proton email password recently and due to my error had to use an alternative email account to access my proton account. The result was that my emails were encypted as a precautionary measure. Decryption is achived in theory by using the previous password. This turned out not to work even though the password used was correct. Proton help were not very helpful and within days Proton sent all users a message apologising for service disruption.
I’m currently selecting my new email service provider.
That sounds familiar. Quite a number of years ago I chose Protonmail for its exceptional encryption. A little over a year ago Protonmail kicked me out of the app on iOS and requested I log back in. No problem, I logged in again, using the same password used previously, but was denied access. Attempts to seek support were futile. They basically told me that when I find my password I will have access to your former emails. The password was never found. As I see it there are two possible reasons why this event occurred:
1) An intruding party gained access to my account and altered my password.
2) I lost the password … (NO. The password worked previously and it was stored in a password storage secure area on my iPhone where passwords are carefully noted and free from access.)
Lesson Learned: Do not use Protonmail! They do not permit password recovery without loss of access to previous months or years of email. They are NOT RELIABLE!!!
Have you got 2:33 minutes?
May you understand then how the web is broken to your privacy as well as your precious personal data. Data that you wish to keep and the ability to censor an access of…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjfIOc_5drU
The only email client that you control your privacy without need of centralized servers networks.
The team behind the desktop email client Thunderbird will be committing time and financing improvements in the mobile email client K-9 Mail. Doing so will essentially make K-9 Mail the Thunderbird client for mobile devices.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/06/email-client-k-9-mail-will-become-thunderbird-for-android/
Here is K-9 Mail’s website link: https://k9mail.app/
Though K-9 is limited mainly to Android, a terrific mobile and desktop client for iOS users is: Canary Mail. Best of all, Canary Mail can also be used on Android and even Windows:
https://canarymail.io/
I forgot to mention, another good email client and is the one I use: FairEmail. All of the email clients I mention are open source and come with or support encryption.
https://email.faircode.eu/
“FairEmail adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy….” GOOGLE? REALLY? Congrats….
@noone where on the website or on FairEmail’s terms of service does it say that?
I prefer Telios Secure email after CTemplar shuts down. Telios gives you complete ownership of your data by encrypting and storing everything on your local devices. No third party, government, or even Telios can read your unencrypted data. The only way to access your unencrypted data is by using a memorized master password on your physical device. The service was designed to use external servers as little as possible and know next to nothing about each user. Your devices have absolute control over how your data is shared, encrypted, and stored and will default to using the peer-to-peer network whenever possible.
You definitely have control over your data
Sargin – Sounds great, I prefer Telios Secure email after CTemplar shuts down!
Seems the Metadata is encrypted, with a better understanding to peer-to-peer seen here [https://docs.telios.io/email]
I can overlook it being in the USA. But just as any online business in most certainly another country, that has to abide.
Telios Law enforcement is found here [https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vTIL7a6NbUhBDxHmRy5tW0e5H4YoBWXUO1WvPseVuEATSLHMIemVAG6nnRe_xIJZ-s5YYPh2C05JwKR/pub]
Going to the second link, also see –
Security of Your Personal Data
Telios explains it best as I’ve ever seen.
The only con that is a slap in the face to me is- next heading after ‘Security of Your Personal Data’..
See then…
“By using Our Service, You agree to the Privacy Policies of any Service Provider We use.”
These are outside businesses third-party vendors.
But isn’t that the personable human cost of being a business online today. Interactions of a business must have facts to be in validation of running a business upright as well in all legal terms of doing commerce.
Any users here of Telios?
Thanks, we should look into this more.
Watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjfIOc_5drU
Seems like Telios is just starting to take off. While offering this service as a subscription base it has a free tier as well.
Importantly you can lock in a deal to a tiers lifetime service by the sites banner shown.
That means spending upfront on 11 months @ $5. or 14 months @ $8. and be subscribed on that tier for life – – no further cost.
Texas is where Telios is based.
Looks promising, thanks for sharing.
Telios is US based company. US is member of 14 eyes alliance!!!!! Good luck!
So being a US citizen and using a privacy secured email (encrypted) service. HQ in the US is a good thing and actually better on users. Because just as any other online business in most certainly another country that has to abide by that countries laws. Here US citizens, we are able to fight in the country that set in motion the enforcement of any crime we be accused of.
You can’t use anything digital and the hive of web2 networks without a trail so generated by doing so. Mostly outside of any advertising networks (as this & 14 governments monitors all), you and others that to earn the target on your back(s). So yes any government can stifle you. Whatever the union/agreement with the US they have is not of concern – if the US wants you they have or influence the power in bringing you to answer for the deed.
The Web must be looked at and seen as a river running across the globe connecting many, but as well being monitored to give precedence of enforcing laws with teeth. Like laws there of a country against global money laundering, counterfeiting, and human slavery. If not we couldn’t have prospering counties doing business altogether.
A comment here mentions-
“There are many examples that prove the real-world risks associated with privacy-focused companies operating in Five Eyes jurisdictions.”
Further mentions of the privacy-focused service(s) talked about-
“service, was forced to collect user data for government agents and was also hit with a “gag order” to prevent any disclosure to their users. (They also could not update their warrant canary.)”
One would have to think of the personal account sought after by law enforcement and causing the company to stifle itself on the issue at large. Being results of that countries judicial actions with merits. Just as any unlawful merits (broken law(s) have to catch the scrutiny in multiple tiers of law enforcement/government departments in which the person owning the personal account in question surfaced. Made not only these watchdog radar screens but a bulls-eye’s target in that specific country’s local in the overall world-wide fight against internet crime.. Crime is big business to a lesser developed countries law/governmental enforcement departments. Mostly for the US MLAT and spur agreements which give unto the helping country some % of the criminals sold off assets.
I ask you with the current events of today along with in how the world did become bridged together since the internet age came on stage. As realistic of the last ten years of giving a web voice majority against a wrong in the world. Where the people as the world over and their country inhabited at, are or can be as close as your street neighbors, though still miles/borders apart. Calling out a country’s relationship of the 5,9,14 eye’s-nations has duly passed and becomes a list now for what privacy tops what country specific and then what the countries are that specifically campaign on or against internet crime from their nation actively.
Now to my point, if your a criminal element your time is counting down of when you get caught.
Unless a nation is dead set against the USA your toast most part anywhere else in the world. If your dealing with a country as such against the USA what’s the point of living here outside it? Put the USA down for what you declare as not being privacy oriented but given our privacy laws in place and a secure home turf to challenge from than anywhere else in the world having that same same equal benefit. I choose the USA before privacy overall for national security and settle for what privacy I get. I’m not a criminal nor do illegal activity.
Advertiser’s and Ad networks are something altogether different than national security but why is my information so free to them. To gather information on a human subject against their will and to make money doing so is totally wrong. Just like copy rights and patens laws are to protect why can’t we get laws against our users human profile online that singles us out of the vast internet? The majority of us are not criminals!
I left out big tech from this now that I think about it.
Advertiser’s and Ad networks to Big Tech Co.’s are something altogether different than a need to know for our USA governmental national security reasons. But why is my information so free to them outside the Gov. who profit from our use of the internet?
Every time your online someone other than our Government watches to make money from us all as that’s the Web 2.0 experience we have now. A Web 2.0 is the Internet of corporations and monopoly, as an Internet honed by them of giant TECH in making as much money as possible and making use of as much data as possible!
From my gathering on this decentralized Web 3.0 planned at the end of the last century. It will cost you in the form of owning a connection device for one, and then the annually subscription to run the device with for the second, to gaining a decentralized Web3.0 experience. Probably on top of an Internet ISP subscription as you have now. Web 3.0 only seems to be decentralized layer pulled or utilized off the Internet we know now.
I see it said:
Only with emergence of blockchain the whole puzzle of Web3 came together. Blockchain is a paradigm shift that allows us to create systems which run “on their own”, by the protocol agreed before their launch. We can construct decentralized systems which can become that layer on which you don’t have to give up on control over your data, where all your data belongs to you.
YEAH RIGHT
Scrap pile the Internet cause in reason to the lack of human security and privacy that needs to be in the foundation roots of this type of an electronic commence system.
So is Web 3.0 more-less a what price is freedom to you or do you see it as a band-aide as I think that’s all it amounts too.
An Add-On is Not the answer, but making our Government listen to us and impose laws on Human Rights in an electronic era is a major step towards good than throwing money at a bottom-less problem….
https://www.skiff.com/mail
Using a – wallet-based login process. Interesting.
This integration is technically groundbreaking and provides all Ethereum wallet-holders access to privacy-respecting, end-to-end encrypted, and decentralized collaboration. Internally, Skiff already functions a lot like a crypto wallet – safeguarding keypairs and other sensitive information for your dhttps://skiff.org/blog/log-in-with-metamaskocuments, identity, and team.
Thought maybe Sven would do a review of Skiff Mail. As I see mentioned in likes of, the first-ever end-to-end encrypted productivity suite, But then in the PP 06/06/2022 it says,
Supplemental Notice for Nevada Residents:
If you are a resident of Nevada, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of certain Personal Information to third parties who intend to license or sell that Personal Information. You can exercise this right by contacting us at hello@skiff.org with the subject line “Nevada Do Not Sell Request” and providing us with your name and the email address associated with your account. Please note that we do not currently sell your Personal Information as sales are defined in Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 603A.
In 2022 on web privacy how can any end-to-end encryption (zero knowledge) as a business still consider saying something like – ” we do not currently sell your Personal Information as sales are defined”?
But wait my information is understood as being trapped limited as possible and to be encrypted on top of everything. Oh or it’s my device(s) with it’s trails and string tail ends that never get mentioned in the PP call outs properly. Sweep under the “Doing Business or Bringing/Supplying you the Business” banner? Swap it, trade it or lend it, it’s still part of the e2e encrypted zero knowledge model and should not be used!
This makes the SKIFF PP and TOS messy to understand beyond the legalese where a real meaning is trapped within.
If you wondered is Skiff a US company in Nevada no, but yes, it’s a US company that reads,
10. Dispute Resolution.
“the exclusive jurisdiction for all Disputes (defined below) that you and Skiff are not required to arbitrate will be the state and federal courts located in the County of New York, New York”.
No not it’s headquarter is in New York, but San Francisco Bay Area, West Coast, Western US Area.
[https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/skiff-402f]
*note-got the link mixed in with the texts in my last Bronco reply- drop the “d” use then up to the comma.
“Personal Information We Collect
Skiff’s highest priority is to safeguard the privacy of the users on our platform. While you are on our platform, we collect only a minimal amount of data needed to provide you with our services. However, we may collect additional types of information when you visit our website or communicate with us via other channels, such as email or social media. We explain the types information we collect in each of these mediums ”
Why they collecting anything? They receive money and provide email services! Stop BS people!
What are you talking about? Did you read this?