Looking to leave GMAIL and am currently testing Proton for a $1 a month. So far it’s pretty good and the issue I have is not with Proton, but with who I’m sending messages to. If I send an email to a gmail account my information is still sitting on a Google server. So is Proton worth it? Is something like Fastmail just as good over all due to how email works? With Fastmail I can get email for my whole family for $14 a month. I won’t have the VPN, ProtonPASS and other Proton apps, but are they worth the $12 a month for one person?
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- 24 days
I’m happy with Fastmail, no idea about Proton, but the Proton CEO’s antics are a bit too tech-bro for me.
- onlooker9496@piefed.socialEnglish24 days
Also happy with my move to Fastmail. I have no preconceptions about the security of email and am leery of Proton’s all eggs in one basket strategy
- 24 days
For me, yeah, it sucks knowing if you send an email to a gmail user then your message is in google still. But, I take comfort in knowing I’m not signing into or using google myself. Just be aware your emails aren’t protected at all. I agree with the other commenter - use whatever is convenient. Emails are never a very private communication form, either way. I also use proton but have been a bit conflicted since they continue pushing AI integration and I’m not pleased knowing my money is helping fund that for them.
- 24 days
Yeah, email isn’t private, but for me it’s usually that I don’t like my host reading all of my mail to build an profile on me and selling that data. Individual emails in isolation aren’t a big deal, but seeing every email and what company or agency sent it is as problematic as the content even if you encrypt the mail content itself. Emails that I sends I always assume are not private, but that’s a separate issue, IMHO. There’s a lot of private information like what protected classes I am part of, political leanings, places I shop, etc., that can be gathered simply from who sends mail to you and who you send mail to. This is why I self host for most of my email.
That being said I still use gmail as I need a backup option and I use it for things where I don’t want the junk sender to know my domain and spam all of my accounts.
But Proton is really not much more private than Google in several scenarios given their CEO’s stance on several sensitive subjects and willingness to give data on protected classes, journalists, etc., to hostile governments, as an example. They do say they don’t sell your data to ad companies, at least. I don’t know Fastmail at all. And self-hosting is not something I’d recommend if you don’t want to put a lot of time and effort into it. Lots of issues come up like blacklisted VPS IP addresses in addition to the setup itself.
- 24 days
For me, the main reason for the switch was to get my own domain. It’s surprisingly easy. This way, if I start to dislike the service handling my emails, I can easily switch it without changing my email address. Leaving gmail and getting somewhat more privacy is nice, but getting control was the main reason.
- 24 days
You dont know how the sender or recipient handles your mail, but handling your own with encryption is still a good practice.
An email provider can have an entire database of all your emails (e.g. Google with Gmail), which more valuable than individual people or companies having access to only a few related ones.
There’s also PGP support with some providers, so you could set-up encrypted emailing with people if that’s important to you.
Either way, getting away from the big providers is a good move, I’d at least want my inbox encrypted though, like Proton or others do.
Fully encrypted email should have been made standard a long time ago.
