The use of email has diminished in importance due to social networks and instant messengers (e.g., Signal or Telegram). However, in many public and private situations, it’s still essential to maintain an email address, contact information, and a calendar.

And while email providers like Google or Microsoft are user-friendly and highly popular, it’s the smaller, specialized providers that tend to keep your data (even without encryption) in safer and more secure hands.

These providers:

• See us as customers, not products.
• Do not scan our emails with algorithms for advertising purposes.
• Work with law enforcement only when there’s a valid reason (e.g., a court order).
• Are pioneers in providing privacy-oriented infrastructure, capable of bypassing blanket data retention laws.

The two trustworthy providers I recommend offer not just email, but also contact management and calendar services. They can sync this data across all your devices.

Mailbox.org

Mailbox.org, officially founded in 2014, hails from Berlin and has experience in email hosting, Unix, and encryption dating back to 1989. Internationally, mailbox.org has earned an excellent reputation for security, encryption, and reliability.

Mailbox.org provides web access and includes email, calendar, and contact management under a single account. You can easily sync emails, calendars, and contacts across all devices (Windows, Mac, Linux, phone, tablet), allowing you to completely bypass iCloud synchronization on Apple devices.

Some important features:

• Own data centres
• Anonymous payment
• PGP encryption for communication and inboxes
• also PGP and S/MIME in the webmailer
• Spam-/ virus protection
• IMAP, POP3 and SMTP
• No unnecessary data collection
• Two-factor authentication (2FA)
• Guaranteed encrypted transmission (SSL/TLS)
• „Have I Been Pwned“ integration
• Own Tor Project exit node to circumvent data rentention

ProtonMail

ProtonMail from Switzerland has been reimagining email since 2014, making it both new and simple. There’s an app for all mobile platforms and a web interface for desktop use, ensuring secure connections from your device to Proton’s servers. Emails between Proton users are automatically encrypted, and communication with non-Proton users can be encrypted using OpenPGP.

Proton also offers a calendar, a secure drive, a wallet and a password manager.

PrivacyGuides, Private Email Services, 05.09.2021

Mailbox.org, Security and Encryption, 05.05.2021

Cover image was created with AI.