opinions on email providers

Securenym = shitty layout IMO

Countermail = won't work on a phone or most tablets. Uses Java.

Anonymousspeech = best all around IMO, but expensive compared to the other two unless you pay for two years at a time.
 
Mozilla Thunderbird :)
x2 also using enigmail for encryption and torbirdy.

There is a thread in general discussion about this that I posted a question in, but maybe this forum gets more traffic, so I'll ask again here. What do these email services (countermail/hushmail/proton, etc) offer over just using PGP with say a gmail address?

A little while back, I quickly glanced over countermail's website ( I think that was the one, not too sure now) and it seems as though its just a web based email service that's hosted overseas, and uses PGP to encrypt emails. So other than being hosted overseas, its basically the same thing as using tbird and enigmail (or whatever you want to use for PGP) w/ a gmail account right?
 
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I've used securenym for years. It had never failed. And I feel it is very consistent. After all us humans are creatures of habit :)
 
So other than being hosted overseas, its basically the same thing as using tbird and enigmail (or whatever you want to use for PGP) w/ a gmail account right?
Increased privacy, US based email providers either scan your current email for "advertising purposes" or will roll right over when homeland security wants everyone email messages. This isn't chicken little "the sky is falling" conspiracy theory, it's the truth.

Using Swiss or other European countries they have better privacy laws but they will now too provide your email messages to the US gvmt if provided with evidence that a crime has been committed.

Also email client is kinda irrelevant to this discussion (thunderbird, outlook, whatever...), it's the provider that counts. But if you are going to go to all the trouble to get an email provider that protects your privacy, why would you download email messages to your local pc or mobile device? Use the given web interface.
 
Increased privacy, US based email providers either scan your current email for "advertising purposes" or will roll right over when homeland security wants everyone email messages. This isn't chicken little "the sky is falling" conspiracy theory, it's the truth.

Using Swiss or other European countries they have better privacy laws but they will now too provide your email messages to the US gvmt if provided with evidence that a crime has been committed.

Also email client is kinda irrelevant to this discussion (thunderbird, outlook, whatever...), it's the provider that counts. But if you are going to go to all the trouble to get an email provider that protects your privacy, why would you download email messages to your local pc or mobile device? Use the given web interface.

I completely believe you about U.S. based email providers "rolling over" and giving your emails to gvmt.

So, U.S. providers will basically hand over whatever the government wants whenever it wants it, and the Swiss/Euro guys will at least require proof from the gvmt of a committal of a crime before they do the same. I can see how it would be safer to use a foreign provider because of that.

Also yes, I would think that if you used a web based secure email provider, it'd be best to use their web interface to be the most secure, I was just using tbird/enigmail/gmail as an example since that's what I'm using. But, if you were downloading sensitive emails to your computer, you could use a shredder program to permanently delete them after you were done right?
 
Yep using a secure program to delete the emails if you bring them down locally is important too.

Think of security and privacy as layers of defense. You want to have has many controls in place to create defense in depth. Kinda like ( to quote Shrek) peeling back the layers of an onion. You want as many layers as possible to keep yourself safe.

But always remember this is only as good as the persons security on the other end. If they don't follow all these steps then you are only as secure as they are. Weakest link thing
 
Oh and the same goes if you are using a VPN provider. If your using one of the US based ones like hidemyass or similar, don't. Same rules apply to turning over VPN logs with IP address assignments.
 
Oh and the same goes if you are using a VPN provider. If your using one of the US based ones like hidemyass or similar, don't. Same rules apply to turning over VPN logs with IP address assignments.
Whats your opinion on "Private Internet Access" for a VPN?
 
For my money I would use a foreign provider. Always read the terms of service and privacy policy, but remember that it's an easy thing for Homeland Security, DEA, etc to obtain servers and logs from any US entity.
 
It's a lot of work for LE to jump through all these hoops for a small time end user. But if your going to take this seriously then do the whole thing IMO.
 
Then again, IP - biggest UG source ever used gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc... for twenty years and he/they never got caught. Customs is a different animal. If you're smart money can keep you free.
 
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