Are you sure that your emails and media files protect from prying eyes?
Until you use an email service focus on respecting your privacy, the answer is NO. Most mainstream email providers like Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail don’t offer end-to-end encryption because they collaborate with advertisers. They have access to your files, read them and send information to advertisers for making product/service suggestions.
So, in a nutshell, using such tech email giants, your messages and attachments are visible for everyone: cybercriminals, government agents, malicious actors, and other data collectors 😱.
Lucky for you, there are a variety of ethical email providers that are ready to defend your freedom and keep your inbox more private.
Dear Internet citizen, I hope my list of secure and private email services will be useful for you. Enjoy!
Best Secure Email Providers: Selection Criteria
There is no versatile solution – a secure email service that will be perfect for everyone. Some individuals focus on state-on-the-art encryption and double their security, while others desire to get a minimalistic interface unburned by advertising and unnecessary graphics.
There are several aspects to consider when switching to a private email provider:
- Encryption method – end-to-end or a combination of encryption.
- Additional features such as encrypted calendar, rich text formatting, plenty of storage, user labels, etc.
- Security is about protecting your messages from being grabbed or read.
- Privacy – How does the email service protect your privacy? What your personal info is being collected, for how long, and why?
Let’s look at our options!
Utopia – A Full-Featured Solution
By using this easy and convenient email service, you gain access to a variety of products: from the instant messenger with a classical bunch of features and e-wallet to an anonymous browser that defense you against web surveillance.
Utopia is an all-in-one platform, integrating a mailbox, private chats, and payments. Utopia guarantees privacy and does not use or collect your personal data outside of what it needs to actually provide you the email account.
Interface-wise, Utopia looks more modern than the other services. Moreover, there are no ads, unnecessary graphics, and intrusive notifications.
Pros:
- Utopia is a decentralized P2P platform with a great combo of the email provider, messenger, e-wallet, and browser.
- Your emails are locked behind improved encryption.
- Utopia has a minimalistic interface with quick menu navigation.
- Convenient and easy sign-up process: no phone number, no email address.
- Utopia allows to archive messages
- It is available on Windows/macOS/Linux
Cons:
- Utopia doesn’t work through the Android and IOS mobile app.
ProtonMail – Swiss Privacy
It’s a solution designed to be as private as possible, where every message is encrypted, and no information is shared. Your email account can be created without giving any personal info, and it is, of course, open-source as well.
The servers of ProtonMail are located in Switzerland. So, all your data is protected by Swiss privacy laws.
ProtonMail has a free tier, limited to 500 Mb of storage and 150 emails per day, which is more than enough for the ordinary user. More demanding clients can part with 4 euros a month, upping the storage to 5GB and 100 mail per day.
With its convenient web interface, you can send encrypted messages from any device.
Pros:
- End-to-end encryption;
- Self-destructive messages;
- SSL-secured connection;
- No logs and IP address tracking;
- No back doors.
Cons:
- Expensive to Upgrade Plan
- Limited Cloud Storage Space
Tutanota – User-Friendly Service
My third suggestion for you is Germany-based Tutanota – an easy-to-use email provider with excellent features. It’s based in Germany. The specific name Tutanota is of Latin origin and means “secret message”.
As all private and secure email providers, Tutanota offers end-to-end encryption and two-factor authentication. Don’t worry that you need any encryption tips and tricks – all your emails are encrypted by default.
The web interface is simple and understand, make an email private or not with one click. However, there’s no search button, so it limits your possibilities – you can’t search past emails.
Plus:
- Application for iOS and Android.
- Includes 1GB of storage space.
- Open-source.
- Supports spam filtering.
Cons:
- You discover a variety of useful features with paid edition. For instance, the paid edition lets you buy 100 aliases and expands the storage to 1 GB.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to recommend Utopia as the one I found the easiest to use and the one that offers the best qualities and a large number of tools. But any other of these three options would do a better job than any mainstream provider that you’ve been using.
