Email service is to the Internet is what Oxygen is to the human body. With a revolutionised tech industry and the unceasing research have led the email services to offer a pool of smart features. Recently Google came up its new ‘auto complete’ feature that cherished the way users can compose emails. Not only this but features like ‘unsend’ the delivered email, sending attachments, etc have made email services useful like never before. However, the one thing that still raise a fair bit of suspicion on these services is the degree of concern for users’ privacy.
Popular emailing services like Gmail and Yahoo! have voluminous users sending and receiving chunks of emails daily, both of personal and professional nature. Which means we transfer a lot of data on the internet. The question is, is your data secured?
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Why data privacy is so important
There is a general perception among people that their data is not valuable enough to become the bread and butter of hackers. And this is also true to some extent. However, the value of data and information increases exponentially when it is of a certain group of people, inhabitants of a region, etc. And let’s not forget the great scandal of recent time that involved the biggest player of social media. The emails you send via these popular clients are not fully protected. Although they are less prone to be breached and get into the hands of hackers, many companies would hardly hesitate to hand even the sensitive information to the government.
How can I protect my emails?
Service providers like Gmail and Yahoo! offers enough protection to mitigate much of the anguish of privacy. Having said this, sensitive data does need level-up protection.
- Look out for the type of encryption the email service provider has for the data. The best is obviously the end-to-end encryption, which apart from securing your emails from any third-party access, also stashes it from the service provider. The entire data is encrypted using keys and can never be made into a readable format by anyone but the recipient.
- The next exigent element for better security is the level of authentication. If offered, then one must always use two-factor authentication. Along with the standard login password, use a complementary method of login to make your mail account far from any unauthorised access. The best part is, this feature is offered by most of the free email service providers.
Best Secure and Encrypted Email Services
| Service provider | Encryption | Authentication |
Cost |
| ProtonMail | End-to-end | Two-factor | Free/Paid |
| CounterMail | Encryption in transit | Two-factor | Paid |
| Tutanota | End-to-end | Two-factor | Free/Paid |
| Hushmail | OpenPGP encryption | Two-factor | Free/Paid |
| Mailfence | End-to-end | Two-factor | Free/Paid |
| Runbox | End-to-end | Two-factor | Free/Paid |
| Kolab Now | Not specified by the company |
One-factor |
Free/Paid |
| Posteo | AES-256 bit End-to-End Encryption | Multiple-factor | Free/Paid |
| LuxSci | End-to-end | One-factor | Free/Paid |
| SCRYPTmail | AES-256 bit encryption | NA | Free/Paid |
1. ProtonMail
Popular with business corporations and cherished by developers, ProtonMail is probably the best email service provider when it comes to privacy. It is free and built on an open source platform. Besides being accessible through the website, it also comes in the form of Android and iOS application. An email sent through ProtonMail can’t be decrypted without the proper key assigned to it. Be it government, your ISP or even the employees at ProtonMail itself, your emails are secured from any unauthorised access. Moreover, it also offers two-factor login option for better security.
2. CounterMail
Offering you the robust implementation of OpenPGP encryption for your emails, CounterMail comes with one of the best in class security modules. It supports IMAP and doesn’t keep IP logs on its servers. So that you won’t miss out any login session because of your frail memory, there is also a built-in password manager. Furthermore, users also get the option to encrypt their emails further using a USB drive.
3. Tutanota
Tutanota is easy to use and highly secure email service provider. All the emails are encrypted until the receiver’s end and can be decrypted anyhow without the particular private key. It uses AES and RSA for email encryption and all its servers are located in Germany, meaning due compliance with German privacy laws. Tutanota enables the users to create accounts by choosing a domain of your choice from the list- @tutanota.com, @tutanota.de, @tutamail.com, @tuta.io, and @keemail.me.
4. Hushmail
Offering services since 1999, Hushmail is another encrypted email service provider. It uses state-of-the art encryption methods to secure your emails from any infringement and unwanted access. Unlike most of the email service providers, it encrypts those emails too that are being sent on nonusers accounts such as Gmail, Outlook Mail and others.
5. Mailfence
Using OpenPGP standard that offers end-to-end encryption, Mailfence brings one of the best encrypted email service provider. Not only its native users, but it also offers the same level of protection to the emails sent on any other email service. Using Mailfence you can also protect your account with two-factor authentication. The sent emails also get the digital signature automatically for authorship proof. On top of that, users enjoy a free and clean UI with no ads.
Conclusion
Privacy is not the need but an elementary right of an individual. It matters least if the user itself is concerned about it or not. However, this responsibility is often ignored by most of the popular email service providers, while lesser-known companies do offer this security. Encryption is a basic block of users’ privacy. Having proper encryption on your emails prevents its misuse by any third-party.
