Are you looking for a mailing service that provides message encryption and is safer on the privacy side than most of the major e-mail service providers? There are a number of privacy-oriented encrypted mailing services that have gained popularity in recent years ever since Snowden’s revelations about NSA. In this post, we shall review two famous privacy-oriented mailing services which offer a decent range of services for free.

1. Proton Mail

Headquarters: Switzerland

Size of free Inbox: 500 MB

Inception: 2013

Pros and Cons:

• Developed by CERN and MIT scientists, it is an open source, free, end-to-end encrypted mailing service. According to Forbes, Proton Mail is the only mailing service that NSA cannot access.

• End-to-end encryption. In simpler words, the messages can only be read by the sender and the recipient, and even the company itself cannot read the content of your messages.

• Proton mail encrypts the data on the browser before it communicates with the server, adding an additional layer of security. Unlike Gmail and some other popular mailing services, it does not store any of the keys on its servers, making it impossible for the company to decrypt the data stored on its servers.

• Attachments are also encrypted.

• The servers are situated in a 1000 meters deep underground location which, according to the company’s claim, can survive even a nuclear attack! The servers’ location in Switzerland implies that the company will decline any espionage requests from overseas governments or intelligence organizations.

• The company guarantees that it does not store any user information such as IP addresses.

• Messages can be sent with an expiry date after which they will be automatically deleted.

• Two-step verification may be enabled.

• Encrypted messaging with non-proton mail addresses is possible using encryption provided there is an agreed password between the sender and recipient.

• The service comes in both web and app version.

• The free inbox is 500 MB. High-end plans are generally a bit expensive. Cloud storage of Proton Mail is also limited.

2. Tutanota

Headquarters: Germany

Size of free inbox: 1 GB

Inception: 2011

Pros and Cons:

• Open source with end-to-end encryption. Its open source code can be downloaded from Github, making security reviews easy for professionals.

• Registration is free and as easy as it can get. Does not require any telephone number or backup e-mail.

• Premium accounts are the cheapest compared to all other paid encrypted mailing services.

• Attachments are encrypted.

• Tutanota previously did not have a policy of deleting accounts. However, recently a new policy has been announced according to which an account not used for six months shall be deleted to free up storage space on the servers. An account once deleted cannot be recycled; however, it may be registered again as a premium paid account.

• Tutanota encrypts the content of the mail and attachments, but does not encrypt the metadata.

• If the password is forgotten, the account will be permanently lost since tutanota cannot recover your password. Providing a back-up e-mail in case of forgotten passwords is also not an option.

• Tutanota has been criticized on some forums for accounts being deleted accidently or old deleted e-mails propping up in the inbox. The company has attributed this to a technical error on its servers that has been resolved since.

Note: To ensure further safety, it is better if the receiving and sending addresses are on the same encrypted mailing server.

(Source: Hal Tabhas an e-mail majani mushaffar)