Privacy Guide - Email providers
Privacy Guide - E-mail providers¶
Resource: https://digdeeper.club/articles/email.xhtml
Providers to use:¶
Posteo:¶
- Custom domains NOT supported
- Encryption at rest
- 100% open source
- Payment via cash, credit card (anonymised), bank transfer (anonymised) or PayPal (anonymised)
Mailbox:¶
- Custom domains supported
- Encryption at rest
- 100% closed source
- Payment via cash, cash payment to bank account, credit card (not anonymized) or PayPal (not anonymized), bank transfer (not anonymised)
Runbox:¶
- Custom domains supported
- No encryption at rest
- Server code is closed source, most of the client code is open source
- Payment via Bitcoin, cash, credit card (not anonymized), bank transfer (not anonymised)
- Requires a real first and last name - however they won't actually check if it's real (unless you abuse their service), you should use your real name if possible, because not doing so is technically against their ToS. Email conversation I had with them about it: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Tutanota:¶
- Custom domains supported
- Encryption at rest
- Server code is closed source
- Payment via credit card (not anonymised), PayPal (not anonymised), Bitcoin (through their official reseller) or Monero (through their official reseller)
- NO IMAP/POP3, using their open source client (or web UI) is mandatory
Disroot:¶
- Custom domains supported
- No encryption at rest
- 100% open source
- Payment via Bitcoin, FairCoin, credit card (not anonymised), bank transfer (not anonymised), Patreon (not anonymised) or PayPal (not anonymised).
- Hobby Project but should last (I still wouldn't recommended it as a main provider)
Providers to avoid at all cost:¶
ProtonMail:¶
- Sketchy (allegedly a honeypot), in 2018, Proton, had its VPN client signed by Tesonet an advertising company (they admitted it here and proceeded to delete everything mentioning this, including the message where they admitted it), in 2021, they helped autority by logging the IP address of a French activist, going against their marketing material, and privacy policy (More: https://digdeeper.club/articles/email.xhtml#protonmail - Mental Outlaw's video about it: Invidious (YouTube) / Librarian (Odysee)).
StartMail:¶
- Made Startpage, and sold it to an advertising company.