Concerns about email privacy are on the rise, and there are a variety of solutions available. When it comes to email, Apple’s Hide My Email is a good example. Yo can remove trackers from your emails using email protection services such as DuckDuckGo Email Protection. However, if you’re looking for a truly private email service, ProtonMail is a popular choice.
According to recent reports, ProtonMail shared a climate activist’s IP address with French authorities, resulting in the activist’s arrest. Users are now concerned that the service isn’t as private as it was previously advertised.
For Android and iOS users alike, ProtonMail login comes highly recommended as one of the best privacy-preserving apps available today. To sign up for the ProtonMail app, you don’t need to provide personal information, so the company doesn’t know anything about you. This appears to be the ideal email service for the person who doesn’t want to leave a digital footprint. However, if the law requires it, Proton must keep a record of every IP address it receives. In other words, ProtonMail only holds a form of a user’s activities when required to do so by law.
Observation and Inference
The entire ProtonMail case revolves around the company’s obligation to abide by the law. Although Proton refused to provide information to international agencies, it was forced to do so by Swiss television stations. An excerpt from ProtonMail’s blog post explains the issue in further detail.
Transparency reports on the number of requests for data made to ProtonMail by Swiss and international agencies are also available. According to the numbers, more than 3,500 orders for data collection were issued by Swiss authorities in 2020, as few as 13 orders were placed in 2017. Over 3,000 orders were complied within 2020, while ProtonMail challenged over 700 orders.
For the first time in recent memory, it is clear that Swiss and international authorities are actively pursuing user data. According to ProtonMail’s transparency report stats shown in the screenshot above, this is the case. To put it another way, ProtonMail complied with the law without sacrificing user privacy.
In addition, the statement that IP addresses are not automatically logged has been removed from the company’s privacy policy. After the arrest of climate change activists, the company has launched a clarification campaign. For those who want a more secure method of accessing the service, this section is for you.
Is ProtonMail Secure Enough To Use?
Is Protonmail secure? ProtonMail’s emails, attachments, and calendars are encrypted by default, so the company can’t read or share them. ProtonMail can be used with a VPN to mask your IP address if you prefer more privacy and anonymity.
To avoid this problem, you’ll need to choose a VPN that doesn’t log user information. The company claims it “cannot be compelled to log user data,” so that’s an option. So if you want complete privacy, you can use a virtual private network (VPN) in conjunction with your email service to protect your information.
Also Read: ProtonMail Bridge Now Officially Available For Linux, Windows, And Mac
Protonmail vs. Gmail
Features
The use of custom domains is one of the essential requirements for an email service to be considered for business use. Gmail and Protonmail both offer paid plans that include this feature.
Their user interfaces are also very similar, with separate folders for each of the types above of messages. You can set up your custom folders and filters to handle incoming emails in the way you see fit.
Even though there are many similarities, each service has its own distinct set of features.
End-to-end encryption, the ability to encrypt emails with a password the recipient must know to open the email, and emails that self-destruct after a predetermined amount of time are Protonmail’s main selling points. As a result of Switzerland’s strict data privacy laws, both the company and its servers are here.
Using Gmail, you can start a video or text chat right from your email inbox.
Your attitude toward data security will play a significant role in determining which product has the best features. If security is a top priority, Protonmail is the better option. However, the extra security comes at a cost.
Performance
You can use the web version of Protonmail or Gmail on a desktop or laptop computer, or you can use the apps for Android and iOS on your mobile device. Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail, and Mozilla Thunderbird are just a few of the many desktop email clients that support Gmail, but Protonmail is not one of them. Protonmail’s only desktop app seems to be a “wrapper” app that can be downloaded from Github.
However, the fact that Protonmail’s web browser user interface is similar to many desktop apps makes up for the lack of a specific desktop app for the service.
However, Protonmail falls far short of Gmail in a critical area. As previously stated, Protonmail takes its security very seriously. To protect your data, it’s important to encrypt it, but this makes it difficult to search for previous emails. The subject line, sender, recipient, date, folder, or content can all be explored in Gmail for old emails that you no longer want to keep.
You can’t search for anything in your email messages because Protonmail doesn’t index them because of the encryption process. In comparison to Gmail, Protonmail’s search function is severely limited. If you do a lot of this type of searching, you should think about whether the added security is worth it.
Pricing and options
A paid plan is required if you want to use Protonmail or Gmail in a professional capacity. The paid version of Gmail is part of G Suite, which includes several other Google applications.
Protonmail range from $5 per month for a single user to $8 per month for as many as 5,000. 5 GB of storage and five email addresses are included in each user’s account. Each user is limited to a certain number of emails per day. Also available is the Visionary plan for six users and 20 GB of storage that costs $30/month and includes ProtonVPN—purchasing a year’s worth of service from Protonmail results in significant savings.