Protonmail

Does anyone care about having a secure email account? One you can be fairly sure cannot be hacked or otherwise intruded upon? I do.

Secure email: ProtonMail is free encrypted email.

Based in Switzerland and set up by a couple of guys from CERN, this is a free email account which is end to end encrypted between Protonmail users. IN their words

..
Only you have access to your inbox - this means no advertisers, governments, or third parties gaining access to your data. With ProtonMail, you can ensure private communications stay private.

Also, you can expire your emails. From *all* mailboxes, not just yours (again, between Protonmail users.)

No email or phone number required to create your account. No IP logs which can be tied to your username. We respect your right to privacy.

Theres no POP3 or IMAP but the web interface is attractive, and v usable.

The base storage is only 500MB but if you get an account before June 17 they are offering 1GB which is a tad better. I think they plan to offer paid accounts sooner or later. I'll likely take one up. I'm sick of selling my soul for free gmail etc. and once I have a reasonable storage space, thats where I'll move to.

It took about a month before I was offered my account, they have a long waiting list. Anyway, I think its well worth getting, and it doesnt cost you a bean to try it out. There is a ton of information on the website, its worth reading and then making your decision about whether its for you.
 
No, they don't, Dave. Thats the ideal for 100% end to end security. You can send to anywhere and receive from anywhere. whats in your emailbox remains secure. What goes out to an insecure site is... as insecure as it is now. Anyway, its in beta. And the waiting list is long. If you think you might want it some time in the future, I'd say get it now. Its free, theres no harm in it. Just don't use it for junk.
 
I don't have any problem with posts like this Sue - I just don't have any problem with my current email - non-secure as it may be. Just as nobody has explained to me just WHAT Flickr does that's particularly evil or privacy-busting and I don't have a problem with Flickr either. Post away, and I'm sure some will be interested, but for me, it ain't broke...

-Ray
 
Do you lot have a problem with posts like this?
Not at all, Sue. Just keep in mind that the use of special services on the web might have the effect of attracting unwanted attention.
(BTW, does anyone remember what happened to the good old swiss bank secrecy? Just ask one of those numerous folks whose data had been sold a while ago.)
Thanks ... I have nothing to hide - nada de nada.
 
Isn't that 99% of all email?
Nope. I still use email for friends and relatives who prefer it. It might be 99% of email on the wider net, but its not 99% of mine. I plan to shift most of my general mail over to icloud, the spam filters seem to work well, after initial issues (though I still get spam for Rayban via iMessage and I dont know how they manage that)

I like no spam, no ads, and encryption as and where I like it.
 
Just as an addendum: re the comment I made about insecure email... I've just tested sending encrypted to the outside world, and what happens at the other end is that it takes you to the protonmail site where you have to enter a password to decrypt. You can reply securely from protonmail to the sender. So really, theres little issue about your mails remaining secure.
 
I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade. And I don't doubt that this email service is more secure than any other. But where there's a will, there's a way.

But this kind of thing (much like insurance) is really just meant to help one feel secure. And if it makes one feel secure, it's WELL worth the price (especially if it's free).
 
Nor do I, but I don't like blanket legislation which allows anyone to be inspecting my emails. Including the NSA, which as far as I am concerned has no business looking into the private affairs of Australian citizens. Whether theres anything to hide, or not.
The problem is not the "nothing to hide" disclaimer, nor is it the concept that "the government" is anonymous and far away (and therefore I'm just another statistic to them).

The problem, in the U.S. at least, is that the person reading your mail is likely in your neighborhood and works at the federal building(s) downtown. So they may be able to do things that the anonymous guys in Washington DC would not be able to do nearly so conveniently.
 
Goodness. Thats a worry. Thats not going to happen here. We don't have "federal buildings downtown" unless we live in Canberra or one of the capitals. Nonetheless, I just object to a lot of what happens on the net. I could give up having internet, but I am already really socially isolated, and that would make it worse. So.. I make an effort to cut off the "stuff". Sooner or later, gmail will go. and facebook. and yes, possibly even flickr. not sure about that because if I dont have flickr, I'll need to take hosting someplace else, or host myself. Lots to consider.
 
Sooner or later, gmail will go. and facebook. and yes, possibly even flickr.
Facebook has been #1 on my personal black list for many years and I'm slowly starting to look around for a flickr alternative, even though I simply use it as a free private cloud service. Heck, I can even imagine being completely offline in a couple years from now; thought about it more than once.
 
I am bored utterly stupid by facebook, but instead of fading away as I expected it would, its becoming even more prevalent than ever. I have friends who use it because they would not otherwise stay in contact with friends and family. They managed perfectly well with email, instant messaging and private family forums B.F. (Before Facebook) but now, I swear the world would end for them if they could not be on facebook for half the day. As for this new verb "friending" ... arghhhhhhhh!

Here's another annoyance. One of my "friends" (ex-workmate) became quite upset at the prospect that I might drop my account. "But I really like seeing your photos"... "Oh yeah? Here's my flickr address".. "oh... I'm not going to go there to look, I just like to see them in my feed". Lazy sods. And really... thats the level of "friendship" that facebook engenders. Its bulltwang. I unfriended several people earlier this year. They havent even noticed. why would they, when they have literally hundreds of "friends". More BS.

Can you tell its morning here and I just woke up? I ramble a lot when I first wake up.

I really like protonmail. As they increase available storage space, I think I will begin using it for almost everything. I dont think I'll bother much about encrypting outgoing mail for non-protonmail users. Having to send them a separate mail with the password is a bit of a pest, so that aspect will be as it is now, and not a lot different to gmail, except no advertising.
 
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I've tried to create an account on the protonmail side but get an answer that they reserved my address but had not the capacity to create new ones at the moment.
Alternatives (if email or flickr) are always interesting and once I had considered an account on posteo.de (POP3/IMAP, TOTP, green-energy, anonyme, commercial-free) - not gratis but don't very expensive either.
 
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