Get to know 3 of the most secure encrypted email services

It was in 2013 that Edward Snowden disclosed and confirmed that governments around the world are spying on you. They eavesdrop on your communications and build a profile of your online habits. Unfortunately, they are not just one person. From hackers to criminals, there are many who want to spy on our personal communications.

Of course, it is not surprising because free email providers also use software to extract various information from your emails and calls and sell them for advertising purposes. We give you the right to be tired of the abuse of these people and governments.

It’s time to choose a secure provider that focuses on privacy and uses encrypted Internet email.

ProtonMail

Price: Free. premium account also offers.
Storage space:500 MB in standard and expandable mode Upgrade to 25GB for premium accounts.
Country: Switzerland.

ProtonMail started its activity in 2013. The service, which offers encrypted emails, was originally developed by CERN researchers (a successful open source campaign) and exited beta in March 2016. The mentioned service uses end-to-end encryption. Emails encrypted by this service cannot be decrypted by the manufacturer or anyone else.

ProtonMail mainly offers you free user accounts. A logical issue that makes you consider how the company supports their service. According to a comment posted on Reddit, ProtonMail has made it clear that they have a reserve fund that will support the service for up to a year without any other revenue.

Why do we recommend ProtonMail?

All data is stored on the servers of this company in Switzerland. A country that is famous for its strict stance on personal privacy and data protection. Most importantly, ProtonMail is open source, which is a huge advantage for fans’ privacy and security.

Legally, the software methods of this service are confidential and no one can test them, so you have no choice but to trust the company’s performance. Being open source also means that you can fully check the security of your platform if needed.

Although emails generated by ProtonMail are end-to-end encrypted, if you communicate with services such as Gmail that do not have encryption, ProtonMail will scan these emails to protect against spam. . However, these messages are scanned in memory.

This means that these items are not stored on the server and will be overwritten in a very short time. As soon as it is scanned, the desired email will be encrypted. According to the privacy policy of this service, IP login is disabled by default, but you can turn it on using the available options.

This is for the benefit of your privacy because it protects your location and prevents data communication via IP address. Also, ProtonMail doesn’t store any of your data once it’s deleted. That is, after deleting an email, you have to say goodbye to it forever.

Of course, there is an exception. If you backed up the email before it was deleted, it will take 14 days for your data to be completely deleted.

Furthermore, no personal information is required to register with ProtonMail. However, you may need a third-party email for purposes such as recovery. If you are looking for disappearing messages like Telegram and Snapchat, ProtonMail brings you exactly the same functionality in email.

Download: ProtonMail for Android | iOS | Web (Free)

TutaNota

Price: Free. premium account also offers.
Storage space:1GB and upgradeable.

German company Tutao GmbH launched Tutanota in 2011 as a freemium and encrypted webmail. The name given to this service is proof of the company’s beliefs and comes from the Latin word tuta nota, which means safe message. The servers of this service are located in Germany, which is under the strict federal data protection laws of Germany.

However, some privacy advocates may balk at the surveillance program after leaks of the German Federal Intelligence Service’s cooperation with the National Security Agency (NSA) have their data stored on German soil.

Why do we recommend Tutanota?

Past the server location, Tutanota has created a very convincing secure service and in most respects its features are very similar to the ProtonMail service. They use end-to-end encryption to ensure that no email is visible on their server.

If you receive an email from a service such as Gmail that does not use encryption methods, Tutanota will send a link to a temporary account where the recipient can view the encrypted message. Tutanota is also open source and its code is available on GitHub for a closer look.

Currently they do not encrypt the metadata associated with each stored email such as recipient, sender and date. However, in the FAQ section The said website has stated that they are looking for the possibility of adding this feature to their service in the near future.

Tutanota uses 2048-bit RSA and 128-bit AES encryption methods. However, this service does not currently support PGP, but company leaders hope to develop an API to allow users to communicate with anyone they want with PGP encryption.

They collect reports that are only related to technical information, warnings and error messages. It is worth noting that according to the statements, none of the reports contain personal information and they are kept only for 14 days.

Tutanota is a freemium provider and offers you free accounts along with premium accounts that have additional features. To buy a premium account, you have to pay 1 euro per month for it. Also, by using the premium account, you can have 5 additional aliases, use your own domain and consider special rules for your mailbox.

Mailfence

Price: Free. premium account also offers.
Storage space:in Standard conditions 200 MB for emails and 250 MB for documents.
Country: Belgium.

This service was created by the creators of ContactOffice and is a web-based email client that, in addition to being free, It also uses encryption. After Snowden’s revelations in 2013, the founders of ContactOffice believed that there was a need for a secure email platform that could protect users’ privacy.

Like many other European countries, it follows strict privacy laws that favor users rather than companies. Also, unlike other countries, there is little evidence of Belgian cooperation with the National Security Agency (NSA) regarding the surveillance program.

Why do we recommend Mailfence?

ContactOffice, which started working since 1999, has the experience of expanding an Internet service so that it can be assured that it will not be closed suddenly. This experience has become one of the outstanding features of Mailfence. The desired service does not only focus on the privacy of emails, but also includes calendar, contacts and document storage.

Although Mailfence encourages its users to upgrade to premium user accounts, most of the company’s revenue comes from licensing email and proprietary collaboration software to companies and universities. Unfortunately, Mailfence is not open source. Therefore, if you use this service, you have to trust the claims made on its website.

Adhering to the principles is an admirable act, but ContactOffice also donates fifteen percent of its revenue to privacy organizations the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the European Digital Rights Foundation (EDRi). Belgian privacy laws dictate that if a judge issues an order in court, Mailfence must comply with it. This is despite the fact that any foreign authority cannot impose their orders and access the data.

Mailfence supports end-to-end encryption and also supports OpenPGP. You can generate a key on your computer, which is then encrypted using the 256-bit AES algorithm and stored on Mailfence servers. They also support two-factor authentication to prevent unauthorized access.

One of the major downsides of Mailfence is that the service does not have a mobile app. Meanwhile, the heads of the company have announced that the development of applications for smart devices is one of their priorities in 2017. However, if you want to synchronize with your mobile device, your only option is to use Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. In addition, if you upgrade to a Pro account, you are able to use POPS, IMAPS and SMTPS secure protocols.

• Download: Mailfence for Web (Free)

No online service is completely secure

There are many other free email providers that protect your privacy and even compromise your information. It is worth the effort to find an encrypted and secure service. In relation to the same issue, you should judge how a provider finances services in its encryption methods and in what position its servers are located.

Of course, you should know that no online service is completely safe, regardless of the ethical principles it adheres to. There are always organizations and hackers who will endanger you and seek your information. If you want to minimize the possible risks, it is best to use a private email server.

Have you ever used these providers? Have we been able to convince you? Share your experiences with us in the comments section.