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Best Email Services For Privacy Concerned People
Email services like Gmail, Outlook, and a couple of other email service providers are quite popular. Well, they’re definitely secure in a way – but not necessarily private (i.e they do not respect your privacy with utmost care).
Maybe, you want to share something confidential and you want it to be well-protected. Or, maybe, you just want to talk about Area 51? (shh, CIA wants to know your location!) Or you just don’t want to the service providers to read your emails to serve you ads.
No matter what. If you are concerned about the privacy and security of your email conversation and want them to be as private as possible – this article shall help you find the best email services for the job.
Note: Judging by the privacy policies and given the work of these services (advocating about privacy & protecting users’ data) – we have hand-picked the services as recommendations for you. But, we advise you to believe that nothing is 100% foolproof and will never be. So, always be cautious – no matter what service it is.
Email Services to Secure Your Privacy
Our list includes free/paid services which may offer standalone applications for multiple platforms (here – Linux will be the priority) or could be web-based email service providers as usual.
1. ProtonMail
Key Highlights:
- Open Source
- End-to-end encrypted
- Swiss-based (protected by legal privacy laws)
- Free & Paid options available
- Custom Domain supported (requires premium subscription)
- Self-destruct message functionality
- 2FA Available
ProtonMail is a quite popular Swiss-based email service which follows an ad-free model to protect your privacy. It lets you specify an expiration time for an email to self-destruct itself. In addition to all the security features, it is open source in nature. So, you can review the open-source encryption libraries or other stuff to be sure.
To add a custom domain, you need to have a premium subscription. You can use it for free with limited features or choose to upgrade it to a premium subscription (and supporting the company behind it).
2. Tutanota
Key Highlights:
- Open Source
- End-to-end encrypted
- 2FA Available
- Free & Paid options available
- Custom Domains supported (requires premium subscription)
- Whitelabel for business available
Tutanota is yet another privacy-friendly email service provider fit for personal and business use. In contrast to ProtonMail, it provides 1 GB of storage (instead of 500 MB) for free users. And, you can add more storage to your account as well.
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You would need a premium subscription in order to add a custom domain. If you want, you can also opt for the ability to whitelabel the service for your business.
3. Librem Mail
Key Highlights:
- Decentralized
- End-to-end encrypted
Librem Mail is a part of Librem One suite of services by Purism. Unlike others, it isn’t free. You need to opt for the premium subscription of Librem One in order to get access to Librem Mail.
Personally, I haven’t used it. But, it looks like a decent end-to-end encrypted ad-free email service given the history of Purism to protect users’ privacy.
4. Criptext
Key Highlights:
- Decentralized
- End-to-end encrypted
- Open Source Signal Protocol Encryption
- Standalone Desktop Applications (Linux, Windows, & Mac)
- Real-time email tracking
- Unsend option
Criptext is a completely free email service available across desktops and mobile phones. It does not support custom domains (or Whitelabel). However, it utilizes the open source encryption (Signal Protocol) – which you might have heard of if you have used “Signal” messenger.
They plan to introduce premium subscriptions with added benefits – but for now as it stands, it is free for all.
5. Mailfence
Key Highlights:
- End-to-end encrypted
- Free & Paid options
- Custom domain support available
- 2FA Available
- Browser-based only (no mobile apps)
Mailfence is a decent privacy-focused email service which enforces OpenPGP end-to-end encryption. You can start using it for free with limited storage (500 MB) and features. In either case, you also get the ability to upgrade your subscription to increase the storage space, unlock the ability to use a custom domain and so on.
The only downside that can be seen here is the lack of mobile apps. So, you need to launch a browser and sign-in in order to use across multiple devices.
6. TorGuard’s Private-Mail
Key Highlights:
- OpenPGP end-to-end encryption
- Standalone Desktop app (Windows for now)
- Free and paid options
- Custom domain option available with premium subscription
Private-mail ticks all the points that you normally look for in a privacy-focused email service. If you want it for free, you will only get 100 MB of storage with encryption and webmail access only.
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If you want to access the service across multiple devices (that includes your smartphone) – you may want to upgrade your subscription. For now, a desktop client for Windows is available. According to their download page – it is coming to Linux soon enough.
7. Hushmail
Key Highlights:
- 14-Days Trial for Personal Use
- Separate plans & pricing for business users (small businesses, healthcare, law, non-profits, & enterprise)
- OpenPGP end-to-end encryption
- Ability to create 2 web forms to let people reach out to you
Hushmail is an interesting email service provider for privacy concerned people. For personal use, it allows you to access a 14-day trial period.
But, for businesses – it categorizes them and offers different pricing. For example, if you want to utilize a secure email service for your Healthcare company – it offers you HIPAA compliant service. Similarly, different plans for law firms, non-profits, enterprises, and small businesses.
In addition to the ability to add a custom domain for businesses, it also lets everyone create web forms (both personal and business users).
8. CounterMail
Key Highlights:
- OpenPGP end-to-end encryption
- Custom domain support
- Web form support
- Windows, Linux, & MacOS X support
CounterMail is yet another alternative as a secure email service to the others mentioned above. It lets you try the service for one week absolutely for free. In addition to the encryption, it lets you have your own domain and create web forms – no matter what level of subscription you have.
The more you spend, the more storage you get. But, the features remain the same – which is a good thing in a way.
Wrapping Up
You may have to face some inconvenience when using a privacy-focused email service, such as – mediocre UI and some personalization features. However, that’s a trade-off that you have to bear with if you want to prioritize your privacy over anything else.
Did we miss any of your favorites? Do you hate one of the services mentioned above? Feel free to let us what you think in the comments below.
via: https://itsfoss.com/secure-private-email-services/
作者：Ankush Das 选题：lujun9972 译者：译者ID 校对：校对者ID