I am trying to choose an email provider, to use with my identifying accounts (like banks, gov ids, etc.). I feel that emails for such cases do not need to be end-to-end encrypted, since most information would already be present with banks, gov, etc.
So I was looking at non-E2EE emails - Mailbox and Posteo.
- Between Posteo and Mailbox - which one do you use / is better in terms of privacy?
I noticed that both of these are hosted in Germany. With rise in popularity of right wing party, a bunch of stuff around chat control and verification, and even normal German government support for Israel, I was wondering whether I should look for other solutions hosted elsewhere. Or use Proton / Tuta instead?
Also, I am not sure if any of these companies support right-wing or Israel themselves?
Do you have any suggestions regarding this?
Proton gives me some no good vibe I cannot explain, but it works really good and they really have the human capital to make it work. They do have policies of no-refund that makes that bad sentiment grow. Why no refunding non-used portion or even with a penalty? Regarding its founder, Andy, he did made 3 statements that appeared to support Trump, but I think they were misinterpreted; Andy criticized more the Democrats unrelenting support for the Tech Giants than praising the Republican administration since, with Trump, was the only voice that appeared that was going to favor more the small business vs the mega corporations. Of course, that was the promise that Trump, as with all others he made, were a complete lie. I don’t recall any other statements beyond that topic of small business vs big tech.
Mailbox, has been static for a while, but they do offer good service and now they are attempting to modernize. No full privacy by default, but okay for most. Still a bit German-centric. I would recommend this easily.
Posteo would have been my first choice since 5 years ago, but the lack of no being able to use your domain, sorry to say it is inexcusable. They say because your own domain brings some privacy up to light, very true! So advise it, “look, we suggest to use our domains for better privacy for you, but if you want the freedom to move to another provider in the future at the cost of a bit of privacy, you are welcome to bring your own domain”. I want to believe the decision was genuinely because they think it is for better privacy and not to create a lock-in for its customers.
Tuta… oh Tuta. I like the people, I believe and trust them the most! Yet, they probably still need to grow a bit so they can have the resources to do better. Their android client does not share data with Google for the push notifications (hello Proton?!). For just email, it is fantastic and for privacy it is the best, period… if you are OK with the lack of support on IMAP and POP3 protocols that is; They should do some bridge like Proton does and I would put in top among all.
On the concerns of the change of political colors in Germany, first regarding privacy, you are more at the wimps of the people of the provider than the leader of the time. I don’t really see any country as safe today, not a single one! Now, a right owner like Lavabit’s that choose to close shop than given the SSL keys to the US authorities, that is why trust is so critical; I would rather use a provider based in the US with the right owner, than one in Switzerland with one I don’t know much about. Once said that, unless you are a high targeted individual, maybe you should not only focus on privacy, besides, sometimes, the best defense is to blend among the no-so-top-notch-privacy providers. In any case, I trust the most Posteo and Tuta, but recommend Mailbox and Proton to most people. I think there is room for a new player here that covers all the shortcomings, but not here yet.