Man
Professional
- Messages
- 2,943
- Reaction score
- 471
- Points
- 83
Contents of the article
The popularity of email for communication is gradually falling, but you can’t do without “email” these days. Accounts are often tied to it, various sensitive information comes to it, so theft or leakage of mail is an extremely unpleasant thing. Traditional providers do not provide a high level of protection and confidentiality, so today we will talk about special secure services.
What is their fundamental difference? First of all, end-to-end encryption must be supported, and it would also be nice to have some guarantees against potential surveillance. As you know, even if the content is encrypted, the time the message was sent and the recipient can still say a lot.
Unfortunately, we can only see what the creators of the services promise, but not check these promises. Sometimes in such matters we have to rely on indirect signs. Let's look at them.
In my opinion, these are the main criteria, but there are a few more points that I would like to draw attention to: the ability to create an email without a phone number or any other data and the ability to pay for the service with cryptocurrency (or use a free tariff). I will also include these points in the review criteria.
Probably the most popular mail in this review, which is not surprising: it is based in Switzerland, created by CERN scientists, and positions itself as one of the most secure mail services in the world! The frontend code is open, including the cryptographic component. In addition, Proton has a site on the Tor network. A transparency report and a canary certificate are regularly published - information about data requests by law enforcement agencies. Here you can be indignant: if the owners care about privacy, then why do they fulfill such requests at all? But we all live in the real world, and a legal entity located in Switzerland must comply with Swiss laws, there is no getting away from it. It's good that reports on this are published at all.
Mail is encrypted and is in an encrypted state on ProtonMail servers. If both correspondents use ProtonMail, then letters are decrypted only by the recipients. You can send an encrypted email to a recipient who does not use ProtonMail - then they will only receive an email with a link to the Proton server, which will prompt them to enter a password. The password will have to be communicated to the recipient via another channel - similar to any symmetric encryption. Another plus is that you can pay for the service in cryptocurrency if the free tariff plan is not enough.
ProtonMail does have many advantages, but it also has disadvantages. For example, at the very beginning, ProtonMail was positioned as a mail service located only in Switzerland, along with servers. In fact, the privacy policy says that the servers are located in two countries - Switzerland and Germany.
When registering, you need to specify a mailbox for recovery. This is not a problem, but it would be cool if no data was required for registration at all.
Here we have a secure mail from Germany — Tutanota. Also a worthy candidate: a transparency report is available, all stored correspondence is encrypted, the source code of mail applications is open, like in ProtonMail, it is possible to send secure letters to a third-party mailbox — the principle is the same, you will need to enter a password to decrypt the letter via a link.
Of the minuses — a backdoor, installed by a decision of a German court. The company assures that all letters encrypted before the backdoor appeared cannot be decrypted. In addition, the backdoor does not affect letters encrypted end-to-end. Such encryption works if both participants in the correspondence have a Tutanota mailbox. Through the backdoor, unencrypted letters arriving on Tutanota servers can be read.
Another small minus — payment in cryptocurrency is not accepted, but this is easy to get around: the company itself offers to buy gift cards through crypto, and pay for mail with them. And there is a free tariff, too. But keep in mind: in accordance with the privacy policy of the company, all payment data is collected. The same applies to personal data that you provide yourself - this is written in the user agreement. It's good that at least for registration you don't have to provide any data and you can remain anonymous.
The company's office is located in Belgium, as are all its servers. There is a free and paid tariff plan. You can enable encryption of correspondence: use either OpenPGP or password encryption. In the second case, the recipient will only receive a letter with a link to the Mailfence server, which will invite them to enter a password. Just like in the previous two services, the password must be transmitted separately. It is noteworthy that when using OpenPGP, you can generate key pairs for each recipient. Another positive aspect: the service supports transparency reports and canary certification.
Of the minuses: the official website says that it is possible to pay in cryptocurrencies, although in fact it is not (this is what the service support told me), but there is a free tariff plan. The source code of the mailer is closed. In addition, the privacy policy states that the company collects and stores IP addresses, payment data and a bunch of other information. The phrase "incoming and outgoing messages are automatically analyzed by our spam, virus, and abuse checking procedures" is also alarming - quite an interesting statement from a company that promises complete confidentiality. Well, when registering, you will need to enter an external email address to receive an activation code and continue registration.
The website of this email service tries at every step to convince the user how cool the correspondence protection is here and how much the service developers care about the security of user data. Let's see what this advertising is worth and how things are in reality.
On the positive side: you can pay for mail with cryptocurrency! But it seems that's where the advantages end.
To register, you need to enter a third-party email address, and if you do not activate the account using the link that will be sent there, you will not be able to send a single letter: "Error: Please subscribe or validate your alternative email address to send email from your account". There is no free plan, but there is a seven-day trial period. Another interesting thing is that the privacy policy states that "incoming and outgoing letters may be automatically scanned to ensure protection against viruses and spam. In addition, the contents of letters are automatically indexed to provide the ability to search for letters". This is how much privacy there is!
Obviously, letters are not encrypted during storage, but the service recommends using OpenPGP on its own. Probably so that your letters are not read by the developers of this completely confidential service!
In short, this is an excellent demonstration of a case when behind the loud words about privacy and security there is neither one nor the other.
Of course, there is a way out - to independently use asymmetric encryption for important correspondence, but this is not always possible with all recipients. With privacy, things are really bad: the majority of services do not have free plans, they do not accept cryptocurrencies and force users to pay for services by bank transfers or payment services with the KYC procedure, completely putting an end to anonymity.
- Selection criteria
- Open source code
- Jurisdiction
- Encryption
- ProtonMail
- Tuta
- Mailfence
- Runbox
- Conclusions
The popularity of email for communication is gradually falling, but you can’t do without “email” these days. Accounts are often tied to it, various sensitive information comes to it, so theft or leakage of mail is an extremely unpleasant thing. Traditional providers do not provide a high level of protection and confidentiality, so today we will talk about special secure services.
What is their fundamental difference? First of all, end-to-end encryption must be supported, and it would also be nice to have some guarantees against potential surveillance. As you know, even if the content is encrypted, the time the message was sent and the recipient can still say a lot.
Unfortunately, we can only see what the creators of the services promise, but not check these promises. Sometimes in such matters we have to rely on indirect signs. Let's look at them.
Selection criteria
Our main guidelines will be open source code, the reputation of the country where the facilities are located, and, of course, the availability and quality of data encryption.Open source code
By open source, I mean the openness of both the program (client) code and the server backend. Of course, open source software is much easier to study, which makes it more reliable in terms of security. Any specialist can analyze the code for vulnerabilities, backdoors, or other security-related issues. This reduces (though does not completely eliminate) the likelihood of hidden data collection or the use of malicious components. Also, an active community of developers supporting the project often helps quickly fix errors and improve the reliability of the service.Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction, or the country where the service is registered, is an important factor for data protection. Different countries have different laws governing privacy, surveillance, and access to data. For example, services operating in the 14 Eyes alliance may be forced to hand over user data to government agencies. Therefore, it is worth choosing countries with strong data protection laws and a high level of respect for privacy, such as Switzerland, Sweden, or Germany, which have strict policies regarding user data and government interference. In addition, you need to carefully read the privacy policy and terms of use - these documents can also contain a lot of interesting information. In this review, I tried to avoid countries that have analogues of NSL (National Security Letter) and Gag order, widely used in the USA.Encryption
Encryption is the basis of data security in modern online services. It ensures confidentiality by ensuring that only authorized users can access data. When choosing a service, you should consider what types of encryption the mail uses, whether it stores emails in encrypted form, and whether it is possible to transfer secure emails to third-party mailboxes.In my opinion, these are the main criteria, but there are a few more points that I would like to draw attention to: the ability to create an email without a phone number or any other data and the ability to pay for the service with cryptocurrency (or use a free tariff). I will also include these points in the review criteria.
Info
The review does not include mail with mandatory user deanonymization: when a phone number is requested or there is no free tariff, and it is impossible to pay with cryptocurrency.ProtonMail
- Website: proton.me
- Open source: yes (client side)
- Accepts crypto: yes
- Anonymous registration: partially (only email required)
- Jurisdiction: Switzerland
Probably the most popular mail in this review, which is not surprising: it is based in Switzerland, created by CERN scientists, and positions itself as one of the most secure mail services in the world! The frontend code is open, including the cryptographic component. In addition, Proton has a site on the Tor network. A transparency report and a canary certificate are regularly published - information about data requests by law enforcement agencies. Here you can be indignant: if the owners care about privacy, then why do they fulfill such requests at all? But we all live in the real world, and a legal entity located in Switzerland must comply with Swiss laws, there is no getting away from it. It's good that reports on this are published at all.
Mail is encrypted and is in an encrypted state on ProtonMail servers. If both correspondents use ProtonMail, then letters are decrypted only by the recipients. You can send an encrypted email to a recipient who does not use ProtonMail - then they will only receive an email with a link to the Proton server, which will prompt them to enter a password. The password will have to be communicated to the recipient via another channel - similar to any symmetric encryption. Another plus is that you can pay for the service in cryptocurrency if the free tariff plan is not enough.
ProtonMail does have many advantages, but it also has disadvantages. For example, at the very beginning, ProtonMail was positioned as a mail service located only in Switzerland, along with servers. In fact, the privacy policy says that the servers are located in two countries - Switzerland and Germany.
When registering, you need to specify a mailbox for recovery. This is not a problem, but it would be cool if no data was required for registration at all.
Tuta
- Website: tuta.com
- Open source: yes (client side)
- Accepts crypto: yes (partially)
- Anonymous registration: yes
- Jurisdiction: Germany
Here we have a secure mail from Germany — Tutanota. Also a worthy candidate: a transparency report is available, all stored correspondence is encrypted, the source code of mail applications is open, like in ProtonMail, it is possible to send secure letters to a third-party mailbox — the principle is the same, you will need to enter a password to decrypt the letter via a link.
Of the minuses — a backdoor, installed by a decision of a German court. The company assures that all letters encrypted before the backdoor appeared cannot be decrypted. In addition, the backdoor does not affect letters encrypted end-to-end. Such encryption works if both participants in the correspondence have a Tutanota mailbox. Through the backdoor, unencrypted letters arriving on Tutanota servers can be read.
Another small minus — payment in cryptocurrency is not accepted, but this is easy to get around: the company itself offers to buy gift cards through crypto, and pay for mail with them. And there is a free tariff, too. But keep in mind: in accordance with the privacy policy of the company, all payment data is collected. The same applies to personal data that you provide yourself - this is written in the user agreement. It's good that at least for registration you don't have to provide any data and you can remain anonymous.
Mailfence
- Website: mailfence.com
- Open source: no
- Accepts crypto: no
- Anonymous registration: partially (only email required)
- Jurisdiction: Belgium
The company's office is located in Belgium, as are all its servers. There is a free and paid tariff plan. You can enable encryption of correspondence: use either OpenPGP or password encryption. In the second case, the recipient will only receive a letter with a link to the Mailfence server, which will invite them to enter a password. Just like in the previous two services, the password must be transmitted separately. It is noteworthy that when using OpenPGP, you can generate key pairs for each recipient. Another positive aspect: the service supports transparency reports and canary certification.
Of the minuses: the official website says that it is possible to pay in cryptocurrencies, although in fact it is not (this is what the service support told me), but there is a free tariff plan. The source code of the mailer is closed. In addition, the privacy policy states that the company collects and stores IP addresses, payment data and a bunch of other information. The phrase "incoming and outgoing messages are automatically analyzed by our spam, virus, and abuse checking procedures" is also alarming - quite an interesting statement from a company that promises complete confidentiality. Well, when registering, you will need to enter an external email address to receive an activation code and continue registration.
Runbox
- Website: runbox.com
- Open source: no
- Accepts crypto: yes
- Anonymous registration: partially (only email required)
- Jurisdiction: Norway
The website of this email service tries at every step to convince the user how cool the correspondence protection is here and how much the service developers care about the security of user data. Let's see what this advertising is worth and how things are in reality.
On the positive side: you can pay for mail with cryptocurrency! But it seems that's where the advantages end.
To register, you need to enter a third-party email address, and if you do not activate the account using the link that will be sent there, you will not be able to send a single letter: "Error: Please subscribe or validate your alternative email address to send email from your account". There is no free plan, but there is a seven-day trial period. Another interesting thing is that the privacy policy states that "incoming and outgoing letters may be automatically scanned to ensure protection against viruses and spam. In addition, the contents of letters are automatically indexed to provide the ability to search for letters". This is how much privacy there is!
Obviously, letters are not encrypted during storage, but the service recommends using OpenPGP on its own. Probably so that your letters are not read by the developers of this completely confidential service!
In short, this is an excellent demonstration of a case when behind the loud words about privacy and security there is neither one nor the other.
Conclusions
Not long ago, we had a review of secure messengers, from which it became clear that there are not so many worthy candidates. In the case of email services, the situation is much worse - of all the contenders, ProtonMail looks more or less acceptable, in second place is Tuta (if you don't count the backdoor!). The rest are all very sad: it seems that the protection there is only in advertising banners, which have nothing to do with the reality described in the user agreements.Of course, there is a way out - to independently use asymmetric encryption for important correspondence, but this is not always possible with all recipients. With privacy, things are really bad: the majority of services do not have free plans, they do not accept cryptocurrencies and force users to pay for services by bank transfers or payment services with the KYC procedure, completely putting an end to anonymity.