Other than rolling our own email server, another solution is to use paid email alternatives ...
Actually there are a lot of very strong free alternatives which seeks to protect privacy and security of the users.
ProtonMail [1] is a very promising one, for example. The entire mailboxes of the users are encrypted so that even the sysadmins cannot read them.
And there are the likes of Riseup [2] and autistici [3], providing e-mail and other web services for activists, they intentionally refuse to provide data about the users when requested.
And there is Mailpile [4] project as a client.
All of them run on donations.
It also is good to observe after Snowden that it progressively becomes a common knowledge that "if a product is free, you are the product".
The entire mailboxes of the users are encrypted so that even the sysadmins cannot read them.
Come on. If there is one thing we should have learned, it is that trust is not enough, we need more insurances. At the face value, ProtonMail is saying "we receive your emails in plaintext, we encrypt them immediately and we promise to never ever read them. Pinky swear". "We promise we won't give your information to anyone. Trust us, we're from CERN !". That is absolutely not acceptable; we need guarantees that give us the assurance that they can't access the content of our communications. Basically, there is no other way than having everything done on your machine, and treat any provider as a stupid router. At least mailpile is a step in the right direction, because it doesn't assume your mail provider will help in any way.
There's a saying in french, it goes like this:
"Promises only bind those who believe in them".
Please please please don't promote something that is based purely on promises. We should already be beyond this.
The main problem I find with these smaller email providers is the uncertainty of their future - they can easily disappear the next day, because they ran out of money or simply lost interest, and then you're f.cked. With Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft you can be at least sure they'll provide their email service as long as possible.
Which is exactly the reason that I have provided rather well-established examples.
Protonmail is developed by a group of people from MIT and CERN, and they raised more than half a million in their crowdfunding campaign [1]. They take the matter so seriously that its co-founder has talked about privacy at TED Global [2]. And riseup has been providing e-mail and VPN services for activists since around 1999.
Just check the links for more information.
The point is that if you take privacy and security really seriously, it is not very hard to find people just as serious as you.
As for riseup, they're always upfront and transparent about how their funding is going so that a case like that seems rather unrealistic for them (at least to happen suddenly)
Comments
Actually there are a lot of very strong free alternatives which seeks to protect privacy and security of the users.
ProtonMail [1] is a very promising one, for example. The entire mailboxes of the users are encrypted so that even the sysadmins cannot read them.
And there are the likes of Riseup [2] and autistici [3], providing e-mail and other web services for activists, they intentionally refuse to provide data about the users when requested.
And there is Mailpile [4] project as a client.
All of them run on donations.
It also is good to observe after Snowden that it progressively becomes a common knowledge that "if a product is free, you are the product".
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[1]: https://protonmail.ch
[2]: https://riseup.net
[3]: http://www.autistici.org/en/index.html
[4]: https://www.mailpile.is
Come on. If there is one thing we should have learned, it is that trust is not enough, we need more insurances. At the face value, ProtonMail is saying "we receive your emails in plaintext, we encrypt them immediately and we promise to never ever read them. Pinky swear". "We promise we won't give your information to anyone. Trust us, we're from CERN !". That is absolutely not acceptable; we need guarantees that give us the assurance that they can't access the content of our communications. Basically, there is no other way than having everything done on your machine, and treat any provider as a stupid router. At least mailpile is a step in the right direction, because it doesn't assume your mail provider will help in any way.
There's a saying in french, it goes like this:
"Promises only bind those who believe in them".
Please please please don't promote something that is based purely on promises. We should already be beyond this.
The main problem I find with these smaller email providers is the uncertainty of their future - they can easily disappear the next day, because they ran out of money or simply lost interest, and then you're f.cked. With Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft you can be at least sure they'll provide their email service as long as possible.
Which is exactly the reason that I have provided rather well-established examples.
Protonmail is developed by a group of people from MIT and CERN, and they raised more than half a million in their crowdfunding campaign [1]. They take the matter so seriously that its co-founder has talked about privacy at TED Global [2]. And riseup has been providing e-mail and VPN services for activists since around 1999.
Just check the links for more information.
The point is that if you take privacy and security really seriously, it is not very hard to find people just as serious as you.
---
[1]: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/protonmail#/story
[2]: http://www.ted.com/talks/andy_yen_think_your_email_s_private...
As for riseup, they're always upfront and transparent about how their funding is going so that a case like that seems rather unrealistic for them (at least to happen suddenly)