What are the best email services that are 100% privacy-friendly? 2020 List

Without a doubt, the e-mail is one of the most widely used means of communication in the IT environment . Therefore, over time, this is a service that facilitates connections at the private, professional and commercial levels . Well, it provides the utilities needed to create optimal interaction with family, friends, coworkers, potential partners, etc.

However, beyond the benefits that these platforms guarantee, the truth is that they have have revealed powerful security and privacy issues . Since it is a mass-used service around the world, it has since become the primary gateway for illegitimate individuals to comment on their misdeeds. This represents a potential risk for users .

Therefore, to become aware of the danger posed by courier services, it is necessary to know what are the biggest latent security risks in the most popular messaging platforms . In addition to this we will mention the most secure messaging services that fully respect your privacy .

What are the main security concerns of the most popular email providers?

Security and privacy in digital environments are considered one of the most special aspects and, therefore, it is important to protect it from prying eyes to reduce the vulnerabilities present in the network. For this reason, the vast majority of email security providers rely on focus on maximizing the protection they provide to their customers .

However, thanks to the development of technology, people who commit crimes via the web are in charge of anticipating future protections against the privacy policies of said platforms and thus, they manage to construct new ways of subverting them . For this reason, different security issues were generated from the most recognized messaging providers in the world .

Next, we specify what they are and what they consist of:

Phishing

Unfortunately, the targeted phishing actions have been the one of the biggest dangers in courier services , especially those that are more widely recognized. Which is a method used by untrusted users to deceive their victims and get them to reveal their personal information . Mostly, credit card details, bank account numbers, passwords, etc.

To do this, they take advantage of social engineering techniques , fooling people into believing that the email is from a legitimate business or service. Taking this into account, they use logos and other special data to make credible malicious emails . It is therefore a risk that has not been minimized by email providers, until now .

Do not use secure SSL protocols

Le "Secure Sockest Layer" or "SSL" is a standard technology that is responsible for maintaining a secure Internet connection. Mainly, in order to protect confidential data transmitted via two systems and therefore to restrict the possibility that any prying eyes can read and modify said information when it is transferred .

As a result, the fact them flat - messaging forms do not use secure SSL protocols is a major security issue . Taking this into account, an email without encryption is just as vulnerable as a postcard, for example. Because he can be broken before reaching its corresponding destination .

Security challenges of IoT and mobile devices

Although, technically, this is not a typical security barrier for email providers; This is a risk that can significantly affect email users. . Therefore, security professionals in these services should also focus on the fact that IoT (Internet of Things) and portable devices can be compromised in this regard .

So, in a simple way, this is a problem that falls within the scope of phishing or other security offensive on messaging platforms . While, for example, on mobile devices, messaging apps, even if they are clean and malware-free, may contain code that redirects users to a malicious website who is looking to get their credentials to take control of himself.

In addition, with regard to devices based on the Internet of Things, such as routers based on open source code or surveillance cameras, they are also raped in the same way . Since, by their nature, they can be used as starting points for security penetrations .

Malicious files and links

It is also a security issue that to a large extent affects the most popular email services . Well, by means of malicious files or links, entry of different types of malware which negatively affects the privacy of people who manage their email accounts through these platforms is facilitated.

For its part, this problem is caused by the fact that most email providers are primarily automation services . This means that once they detect the known movements of said threats, they block malware entry .

But, the authors take the initiative and modify these important movements to go unnoticed in another way . In addition to this, few courier services have the ability to discover new risks that arise every day . This is why they take the time to introduce them into their defense mechanisms and, of course, the criminals take the opportunity to commit their illicit actions .

Bad backups

Backups, as their name suggests, aim to provide greater security to users . Since, by default, they encrypt your files and maintain your confidentiality by protecting all information contained therein .

Moreover, it facilitates the restoration process at all times and does not require any effort from the users, because they are automatic . However, while many email service providers promise to make quality backups, in reality, many of them turn out to be defective . Since then, if you don't have multiple restore points and they are hosted on multiple media, they reveal a significant security problem .

List of the most secure messaging services that respect your 100% privacy

For all that is mentioned in the previous section of the article, you can understand that although the most recognized email providers offer different features of interest to users, they present certainly also noticeable shortcomings in terms of security . For this reason, it is recommended to try other services that offer greater security .

Therefore, here we will introduce you to several of the messaging services specially designed to 100% protect user privacy:

ProtonMail.com

This free messaging platform is considered to be one of the best services to achieve privacy when establishing an email communication. Since then he has focused on providing great security and strong end-to-end encryption with the aim of creating an environment which respects the privacy of individuals and thus manages to reduce vulnerabilities caused by illegitimate individuals .

To start the experience, everyone can create a free account that offers a total of 500MB of storage and, if you wish to increase this capacity, the service allows you to access several payment options which can be adapted to your needs. Among other features, ProtonMail supports TOTP two-factor authentication , protects data based on DPA and DPO, and has non-idle encryption for emails .

Tutanota.com

It is also a free platform whose slogan is "Secure emails for all" and therefore focus on the greatest possible confidentiality. Taking this into account, it encrypts all data on your device end-to-end and does not accept the use of third-party email clients. On the other hand, it is a messaging service that provides 1 GB of storage with its free plan for all types of users and, in addition, it presents other very competitive premium alternatives.

In addition, it works on a desktop client and has an application available on F-Droid , has same an official application on the Google Play Store and the App Store . Among other features, Tutanota supports two-factor authentication and users can therefore use TOTP or U2F (except on Android). It also plans to support AutoCrypt to allow external users to share encrypted emails with Tutanota users.

cloud.disroot.org

From 2015, this new platform has emerged to provide a service to many users in order to provide a more secure and private experience . Among its features, we underline which Disroot is free and offers a storage limit of Go 1 . In addition, if users wish, it makes it easy to purchase original storage from 1 GB for 0,15 euros each month .

On the other hand, in terms of account security, it offers TOTP two-factor authentication for webmail only , but does not allow U2F authentication with a security key. In addition, it uses full disk encryption and uses standard CalDAV and CardDAV protocols . Moreover, it offers the possibility to send encrypted emails from your webmail application by using OpenPGP .

Posteo.de

It consists of an email provider who provides essentially a secure, private and anonymous user experience . Which is a paid service that offers a 14-day free trial and, in its cheapest plan, offers 2 GB of storage and allows you to buy an additional 1 GB for only 0,25 euros per month. To make payments, it can be done with debit and credit cards, bank transfers and via PayPal .

In addition to this, it should be noted that Posteo has no access encryption for the storage of e-mails and that thanks to this, only each user will be able to read the messages that have been stored in his account. It also provides optimal integrated encryption with OpenPGP public keys and supports discovery of public keys from the HTTP web protocol to from its web key directory.

CounterMail.com

It is mainly considered as a courier service easy to use, secure and reliable which was created with the aim of providing maximum privacy to its users, without any complexity. Within the framework of these fundamentals, the encryption of this platform works in a transparent and automatic way, it therefore does not need special IT skills from its customers .

By default, CounterMail uses an encryption protocol called OpenPGP with keys de 4096 bits to expertly protect people's data. Fortunately, this is a service that does not store data on any hard drive or server, your account will therefore remain 100% encrypted and anonymous at all times . However, it only accepts sending encrypted emails to users who use the service.

StartMail.com

This is a paid courier service which, in particular, aims to provide a high level of confidentiality and security for all users through the use of encryption OpenPGP standard . In addition to this, it is characterized by the fact that it is a platform that offers a free trial for 30 days and, luckily, email accounts have a storage of 10 GB and more . Thus, it supports personal accounts as well as professional accounts.

On the other hand, it has zero access-at-rest encryption using a vault system with which, it manages to encrypt all the information processed by the person after the connection and, by default, it is not decrypted only using the appropriate private key . In addition, it accepts TOTP two-factor authentication for webmail only and has built-in encryption that simplifies the transmission of emails. with OpenPGP public keys .

mailfence.com

This corresponds to an email service that offers accounts with 500MB for emails, 500MB for online documents, and 1000 calendar events for free. In addition, like all other solutions, it also focuses on the providing the best levels of privacy and security for its users . Since, lower the slogan "Confidentiality is a right, not a feature" , this guarantees optimal confidentiality for all your email accounts.

In this way, the messaging platform has end-to-end OpenPGP encryption , to perform data encryption in the sender's system and, in addition, to ensure that the recipient in question will be the only one with the power to decrypt said message. from the issuer's public key. Thanks to the fact that it provides digital signatures, it makes any identity theft or tampering impossible to give complete authenticity.

Hushmail.com

Finally, we highlight this Canadian email provider which has been designed with the aim of ensuring the security and confidentiality of its users when communicating by email. This is achieved thanks to OpenPGP encryption with which he has the ability to encrypt all emails, automatically .

Added to that, it also has automation around the end-to-end encryption that it offers. It is to highlight that Hushmail offers the possibility of send and receive emails as in any regular service , offers various personal and professional payment plans, provides access to a free trial of 4 days in all modalities and is ideal for efficiently managing emails.

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