ProtonMail is an encrypted webmail service created in 2013 at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The service distinguishes itself from other mail providers (such as 
Gmail and 
Outlook.com) by allowing users to encrypt emails end-to-end. The service can be used via a web browser on a computer (via webmail) or via dedicated 
iOS and 
Android applications. ProtonMail is managed by Proton Technologies AG, a company based in the canton of Geneva, Switzerland. Its servers are located at two locations in Switzerland, which is outside the jurisdiction of the United States and the European Union. As of December 2015, ProtonMail had 1 million users. Initially available by invitation only, the service has been open to all since March 2016. The service is also accessible through the Tor network.
Location: Switzerland 🇨🇭 Price: ProtonMail offers a free version and three paid plans from 5€ to 30€ a month.
Cost / License
- Freemium
- Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Online
- Android
- iPhone
- iPad
- Tor
Comments
So, do you plan on adding
Librem Mail ?
The reason I ask is because the whole Librem suite seems pretty new. Saw it 'advertised' on your Twitter and I'm wondering what the word on the street about them is, given that their website honestly seems barren of important info regarding their products.
At $7.99/monthly for the whole suite -- mail + VPN + social network + chat -- they seem like a really great option, if only I knew more!
So, POX, any thoughts? Thanks in advance for all the contributions you make to this community.
EDIT: while we're on the subject: how the H do I get in touch with someone from the Librem One team? I can't see a contact e-mail ANYWHERE on their website. Cheers!
[Edited by coralinecastell, August 25]
I haven't used Librem One with Librem Mail yet, but yes I might add it to this list if it's proven to be a good secure and privacy-focused email service. I think you can contact them on their website.
Thank you so much, POX! I somehow missed that section.
Thanks @Pox for the overview. Just noticed that Tutanota is now also available on F-Droid, which is great if you want to move away from Google: https://tutanota.com/blog/posts/open-source-email
Yes it's great, we recently tweeted about that. :)
As pointed out by @anonsubmitter, US-based services are a concern, so RiseUp should be added to the list of risky picks for those with state-level interests.
There is a so-called "canary" warrant, of sorts, with some rather bizarre omissions, according to this self-published question on their canary page:
" Q: Why does the new Canary not mention gag orders, FISA court orders, National Security Letters, etc?
" A: Our initial Canary strategy was only harming users by freaking them out unnecessarily when minor events happened. A Canary is supposed to signal important risk information to users, but there is also danger in signaling the wrong thing to users or leading to general fear and confusion for no good reason. The current Canary is limited to significant events that could compromise the security of Riseup users. "
I am also less than impressed with RiseUp's "About Us" page, which does not give any real names for its "alumni", presumably staff. Nine identities are given under "the collective", and but under cutesy bird names, in Latin. Only one gives a contact method, via a GPG key. Given the recent exposure of GPG and other related crypto tools as fundamentally flawed, this suggests a rather casual approach to privacy.
See, https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/3k4nd9/pgp-gpg-efail-vulnerability
A Crunchbase profile on RiseUp gives Micah Anderson as the founder, a rather shy individual who is alone among fellow directors over at privacy-focused Calyx Institute in not having a board photo. Makes sense for a privacy guy .. I guess?
See https://www.calyxinstitute.org/about/board
Finally, there are questions raised about RiseUp operating a TOR exit node, here .. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1803.05201.pdf .. PDF may take a moment or three to load. Search ctrl+F to search for RiseUp.
Thank you. I added a warning about RiseUp and any other US-based service.
Update: As might be expected, there are several rabbit holes to dive down into.
In the interests of fairness, here is an article claiming to debunk the last link from Arxiv: https://dustri.org/b/debunking-osint-analysis-of-the-tor-foundation-and-a-few-words-about-tors-directory-authorities.html
The debunker criticises the many spelling and grammatical errors, but as the lead author is French I found that less interesting than the fact that the debunker article does not make any reference to Micah Anderson (mentioned in my comment above).
For those wanting to read more - and whether or not they should trust RiseUp and its involvement with TOR nodes, see author Yasha Levine at: https://surveillancevalley.com/blog/internet-privacy-funded-by-spies-cia
For a bit more back and forth on Levine's book: https://caucus99percent.com/content/concerning-yasha-levine%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98fact-checking-tor-project%E2%80%99s-government-ties%E2%80%99
cock.li is another http://vc.gg
he seems to be a privacy / security focused kid (and probably a 4channer)
lavabit is another; they claim to be the first
The guy who runs cock.li is an American citizen, so even though he has moved to Romania, cock.li still follows US laws. There was a recording that he operator of cock.li posted in one of his transparency reports that pretty much shows that cock.li is within jurisdiction for US gag orders (though he found a workaround for now by having him take the call about the subpoena and gag order while he was live on Mumble and broadcasted it to everyone on his Mumble server). And if it's under US jurisdiction it's also vulnerable to National Security Letters.
There is also a small amount of logging: https://cock.li/privacy The IP logging isn't a deal breaker for me, but the email service technically being under American jurisdiction is.
Lavabit is based in the US and is thus vulnerable to National Security Letters and gag orders. A National Security Letter is a legal demand from a law enforcement agency, for example "give us backdoor access to your online service". A gag order means that disclosing information about a specific law enforcement request is illegal for the website operator. Both of these were experienced by Lavabit and led to them having to shut down in the first place.
Cock.li and Lavabit are not bad email services, quite the opposite. They are however under an extremely bad legal jurisdiction.
You forgot Yahoo! :))
No I didn't forget. Yahoo is not what you would call a secure and privacy-conscious email provider. :)
Wooooosh! (The ":))" indicates that it was a joke!)
I wasn't sure but I figured it was a pun. :)
Fantastic and insightful list, also very timely. Thank you, POX!
It makes sense that a lot of these companies are Swiss-based since Switzerland is out of the 14 eyes and is not a member of EU.