Not that many people use email much anymore, but as you often need an email address to sign up for other shit… anyway, I need a better option than gmail, I’m sure you can appreciate why. Email is so old school at this point that most of the time I don’t even think about it anymore.
Anyway, I need some email options that aren’t gmail or otherwise attached to a billionaire. I’m not really interested in non-email methods of communication, I’m specifically asking about email.
Thanks in advance.
Most if not all non-paid options will have privacy concerns similar to gmail, so you’ll have to pay. I pay for Proton, and though I’m not thrilled about some of the political bullshit their CEO has been up to recently, I think I’ll stay with them for now since they’re still good for privacy, and their other services are solid. They’re also very upfront about what they charge and why, and I think they still plan to transition to a non-profit.
It’s not just the pro-trump stuff though, there’s also the case of being very pro-cop in that they helped get info about a french activist against their will or settings, we believe.
sure, they must have shut down all services instead, that would have been the real solution!!
Unironically this.
That definitely sounds concerning, do you have a link or anything? Any company would have to comply with a legal court order regardless of their preference or ideology, so how they comply comes down to the amount of information they store and for how long. Just saying, the fact that they helped the cops (as much as I hate the cops in general) doesn’t necessarily mean they handed everything over or volunteered anything they weren’t legally obligated to provide. But I don’t know the specifics of the case you mentioned.
Several links, here:
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-58476983
https://www.wired.com/story/protonmail-amends-policy-after-giving-up-activists-data/
Hope this helps!
Thank you!
For everyone who doesn’t want to read the links: important to note is that had the french activist accessed his protonmail account using any vpn (including proton) or the protonmail .onion site, they would have had nothing useful to report. also, it looks like they only logged the IP after being ordered to monitor access to the mailbox.
It also seems that they were quite frustrated that they couldn’t resist in this case, mentioning the inappropate usage of anti-terror laws against what in reality were squatters (which in turn compelled the swiss judges to grant the monitoring).
Sure, happy to help! 🙂
Yes, about this case of I remember well they provided the IP address of the activists.
Any email provider has to follow the law and will have to provide the information they have. The only diffidence of that in the case of proton the information they have is the IP address you used to connect to their service. For another provider the information might be all the content of your email.
The imprompted praise to Trump from proton CEO on the other hand is more concerning.
Removed by mod
I’m an anarchist so inherently against governments etc. So I would, I don’t comply with cops of my own free will.
Having something taken from me against my will is not complying.
Removed by mod
Think what you will.
I don’t think leaving Proton due to their CEO approving Trump is that reasonable
Who’s not using email? I’m green with envy, but I think it’s a ludicrous premise to think not many people are using email.
I also wondered what kind of rock OP lives under. I use email every day, multiple times per day. I probably send more emails than texts.
i don’t use email much at all, only signups at a few places.
at work, communications with my coworker or clients is by phone or in person, not email or very rarely sms. email is mainly the required communications with the state (business registrations, taxes and shit) and invoices and receipts for things we use or buy online. plus lots of spam. lots and lots of spam. oh, and scams. lots of scammers and phishers too.
I use proton and for registering on different sites I usually use addy.io. Also, I recently found a new mail service that looks nice and might give it a try soon, disroot.org
ProtonPass will also generate aliases and forward the mail to your email account. But, as someone else mentioned, the CEO’s politics seem sus.
Disroot - A lot of people in the know about privacy seem to really like it.
Really though email is a bullshit communication medium and unless you’re insisting on using GPG for every message and make sure your or other people’s keys never got compromised I wouldn’t rely on it.
Really hoping Dark Mail actually becomes a thing at some point. If it was that with locally stored encrypted email then email might actually be worth bothering with.
Tutanota or disroot.
PurelyMail is a great indie mail service. I love them.
While I’m using Proton rn, I’m planning to migrate to Posteo with Addy.io for aliases. However they all cost money. If you mean free email that’s not tie to a billionaire, I can’t think one off my head. You can achieve “free” by hosting your own email server as it sounds you’re intended for receiving only, but the electricity still cost some, plus you are doning free labor to make sure it is happy.
Riseup.net Private, free, encrypted
Invite-only and no clear way to get said invites
I use proton for a while now, its been great and well supported. The proton pass lets you use unique emails to register too. Its paid, for that anyway. I’ve been in love, I still don’t keep my passwords on it opposed to a USB drive, but some i’ve started to just out of simplicity and lack of need of serious security for those.
Rise up has changed their invite policy to one every 24 hours. I am sending out invites in order of request, but have had (to date) 21 DM’s. I have to draw a line and will send one per day until I am cut off.
Thanks
Protonmail. I have over 25 different online accounts/identities (each one for a different topic gaming, movies, music, coding etc.), all Protonmail based.
Proton has a good service
Absolutely. But one thing I didn’t like was it locked me from using Proton services (even free plan) once my premium plan ran out until I paid $6 cancelation fee BS.
Proton is run by a fascist. Its only a matter of time until they too will Start sucking Trumps balls
LOL. Proton is absolutely not run by a fascist. You should learn what fascism is and what they do. Proton CEO is way WAY more tame than actual fascists. It’s actually not even close IMO.
he is at least a very dumb person if he believes Trump sides against bigtech
do you know of alternative? I wanted to leave them because of this but found they most other options were not as close as good.
ProtonMail is run by a non profit foundation based in Switzerland. It’s also end to end encrypted