Privacy @lemmy.ml 1985MustangCobra @lemmy.ca 2 wk. ago

Looking for email providers.

Hello all,

I'm looking to switch over to move privacy focused setup, so far i have a VPN, and will be making other changes. Is there any email providers that you know respect privacy, or how one would do this?

32 comments

https://tuta.com or https://proton.me/mail
- Another recommendation for Proton Mail. As others have said I'd recommend getting your own domain for email so you can always migrate providers without having to change your email address.
Another plus one for Proton with your own domain.

Self hosting sounds good, but it’s fraught with mines that if you don’t know what you’re doing can take from “can’t send email because my domains been back listed” to “everything in my network is now sending spam to the entire world”. Sure, many folks self hosting sounds with no issues, but the price for configuring something wrong can be steep and IMO is just not worth the trouble and risks when there are good options for encrypted, privacy protecting email services for a reasonable price.
I use mailbox.org and I manage my own PGP keys. You can also encrypt your whole inbox with your key. To access your inbox, then, you will either have to use something like Thunderbird or give your private key to mailbox.org. And yes, I recommend using your own domain. Also, there is no free-tier.
Well then here are some alternatives:

Proton

Disroot

Tuta (Formerly Tutanota)

Posteo

Mailbox
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/email/#recommended-providers

Plus your own domain
- why using my own domain?
  
  With your own domain, you can always change email providers without changing your address.
  
  You can get a catch all address so you can have many many many many different addresses you can use. Which is helpful for privacy. Siloing each service into its own email address. It gives you optionality
Migadu is a decent option if you don't want to self-host.
Posteo was the winner when I last looked over the alternatives, although I haven't switched yet. Tuta, mailbox.org and Runbox were runners up.

Various reasons (mostly price, provider getting blocked too much, and being in the USA) led to a hard "no" for CounterMail, Soverin, Mailfence, StartMail, Fastmail, Proton, RiseUp, Hushmail, Skiff and Mail.com.

It's likely you don't need a VPN. You're putting a lot of trust in that company; make sure it's well founded. I just use my ISP for normal stuff, then when I want to surf under the radar for one reason or another I open up Tor.
- thanks. i might do self hosted email as recommend to me above. i use mullivad as my VPN provider. The only other things i need are secure comms but there's no one i really talk to so that's not really an issue atm
An advantage of Tuta and Proton is, that there is a basic free tier. Your Mail is a center-point of your online activity. Hoping it to never happen, if you ever can't afford the (cheap) price, you won't lose access to your mail. Which would suck, for all accounts linked to it.
I use Posteo. Their privacy policy seems to be more sane than the others, with riseup and disroot coming in first and second, but I'd rather not use email providers that present themselves as a "safe" place for activists and journalists.
- Plus one for posteo. I've used them for several years now and have had no issues
Use end-to-end encrypted email if the people you're emailing are willing to set that up (not hard, but a lot of people have learned helplessness when it comes to tech), and/or you could host your own email. I don't think there's much point to looking for an email provider that "respects privacy" because that's simply working on a pinkie promise that they don't read your unencrypted emails. I suppose it's better if they claim they don't read your emails, than if they don't make that claim at all, but beyond that I don't think it matters with external email providers.
- yeah, im hoping thoese who i talk to will use E2EE email, but i'll be using it mostly for personal stuff. The last two things is a browser, and phone, but the last one might be impossible.
  
  You mean getting a privacy-respecting phone? You could get a Pixel with GrapheneOS as one of the most popular options. There are also a number of OSes and phone manufacturers competing in the privacy-concerned market you could look into. Note that privacy is not the same thing as security, and for security, GrapheneOS is the clear winner.
Tuta's nice (Germany), the only think Proton (Switzerland) as over it - for me - is an .onion site, although they leak a lot of links onto clearweb. I've heard of Fastmail but haven't tried it.
I was lucky to find https://purelymail.com/ which fit my budget and needs - primarily supporting multiple domains for my family and personal projects without extra costs.
Wondering why nobody is talking about StartMail. StartMail provides encrypted email services, including PGP encryption for secure communication, and the option to send password-protected emails to non-users. It also offers unlimited disposable email aliases to protect your primary email address and avoids tracking or profiling users.
Posteo is 1 dollar a Month. Its legit.
Self-hosted if you have the skills for

PS: I don't know your needs but emails are inherently insecure, if possibly avoid it
Use a web hosting and domain provider (eg mythic beasts), and get a email@yourdomain.tld email address. Or self host the server, if you have the ability, then you just need to buy the domain.
- I have a domain name from namecheap im not using. self hosting is not possible. i could web host but wouldn't that get pricey?
  
  If you own your own domain the you can use a paid tier of a service like Proton or Tuta where the emal is you@yourdomain.tld and the backend is actually them, so you don't need to selfhost.
  
  Mythic beasts 5GB plan is only about £4 a month.

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