Has Anyone Ever Used ProtonMail?

ScubaSteveAvery

Master of the Senate
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Jul 29, 2007
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I’m trying to take seriously internet security and privacy more lately to keep up with best practices and remove that worry and hassle from my life, which means de-Googleizing my life a bit. When researching more secure email platforms, ProtonMail came across as the best, but I’m wondering if anyone here has ever used it? My main issue is I don’t want it to be a pain in the ass for other people to read and reply to my emails. Any thoughts or alternative service suggestions would be much appreciated.
 

Marceline

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Sep 9, 2002
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I use ProtonMail as my primary email address at this point. I think it's a really good service - I've had no issues. As for other people being able to ready and reply, they won't see any difference compared to you using Gmail except for the stuff after the @ will be different in your address.

I use their paid service for the extra storage and so I can use my own domain name but the free one works great too.
 

NortheasternPJ

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Nov 16, 2004
19,236
I’m trying to take seriously internet security and privacy more lately to keep up with best practices and remove that worry and hassle from my life, which means de-Googleizing my life a bit. When researching more secure email platforms, ProtonMail came across as the best, but I’m wondering if anyone here has ever used it? My main issue is I don’t want it to be a pain in the ass for other people to read and reply to my emails. Any thoughts or alternative service suggestions would be much appreciated.
What are you really trying to accomplish? Email is based upon sending emails in clear text via SMTP. A lot of services now do TLS Preferred, which will encrypt it in transit, but in general you shouldn't be putting anything you don't want public via email over the Internet.

I use gmail since I've been on it since the beginning and have a great email address, but I do literally nothing via email that's sensitive. I can't remember the last email from a human I got, so I literally don't care. I avoid Google for pretty much everything else.

What are your main reasons for going to something more anonymizing? Are you worried about ads? You worried about someone intercepting your emails?
 

Blacken

Robespierre in a Cape
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Jul 24, 2007
12,152
ProtonMail is fine, but Google is also not the bugbear people think it is. I would spend the money on a Google Apps domain--if you're paying Google they don't index your data for advertiser aggregation--instead.
 

MakeMineMoxie

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Jul 15, 2005
722
The floor of Punter's Pub
I’m trying to take seriously internet security and privacy more lately to keep up with best practices and remove that worry and hassle from my life, which means de-Googleizing my life a bit. When researching more secure email platforms, ProtonMail came across as the best, but I’m wondering if anyone here has ever used it? My main issue is I don’t want it to be a pain in the ass for other people to read and reply to my emails. Any thoughts or alternative service suggestions would be much appreciated.
I've been using it for over a year now and I'd give it a "Pretty Good". It lacks some flexibility in setup but I find it adequate for my needs. I too sprung for the upgrade from free mainly so I could create more folders and labels and I recently signed up for their VPN service. It is OK but I'll like it more if/when they improve the speed.
 

ScubaSteveAvery

Master of the Senate
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Jul 29, 2007
8,329
Everywhere
What are you really trying to accomplish? Email is based upon sending emails in clear text via SMTP. A lot of services now do TLS Preferred, which will encrypt it in transit, but in general you shouldn't be putting anything you don't want public via email over the Internet.

I use gmail since I've been on it since the beginning and have a great email address, but I do literally nothing via email that's sensitive. I can't remember the last email from a human I got, so I literally don't care. I avoid Google for pretty much everything else.

What are your main reasons for going to something more anonymizing? Are you worried about ads? You worried about someone intercepting your emails?
I do a fair amount of emailing humans from my personal email. Gmail is great and I like it, but the data collection to serve ads and push their services is what I don’t want on the one hand. I’m also in the process of starting a business, but currently live abroad and am already finding myself in a position of emailing documents with sensitive information via email. I guess I could mail them but it’s expensive and the French mail service is unpredictable.

ProtonMail is fine, but Google is also not the bugbear people think it is. I would spend the money on a Google Apps domain--if you're paying Google they don't index your data for advertiser aggregation--instead.
I dunno - I generally find Google’s scooping up of every conceivable bit of data to be massively uncompetitive assholes to just be shitty in general. Fair point about the Google Apps domain but it is also missing some security aspects too.
 

ScubaSteveAvery

Master of the Senate
SoSH Member
Jul 29, 2007
8,329
Everywhere
I use ProtonMail as my primary email address at this point. I think it's a really good service - I've had no issues. As for other people being able to ready and reply, they won't see any difference compared to you using Gmail except for the stuff after the @ will be different in your address.

I use their paid service for the extra storage and so I can use my own domain name but the free one works great too.
I've been using it for over a year now and I'd give it a "Pretty Good". It lacks some flexibility in setup but I find it adequate for my needs. I too sprung for the upgrade from free mainly so I could create more folders and labels and I recently signed up for their VPN service. It is OK but I'll like it more if/when they improve the speed.
Thanks for the feedback. I’m not super excited about paying to get more than 3 folders but I understand why they do that. How have you found the developer support? Do you see the program being updated and bugs responded to quickly?
 

Marceline

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Sep 9, 2002
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Canton, MA
Thanks for the feedback. I’m not super excited about paying to get more than 3 folders but I understand why they do that. How have you found the developer support? Do you see the program being updated and bugs responded to quickly?
It's either pay for stuff or have them scan emails and serve up ads, so I don't mind paying.

I haven't had any issues with bugs or had to work with their developers at all. I have found both the mobile app and the desktop/web interface to be very well polished considering how new of a product it is.
 

teddykgb

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Jul 16, 2005
11,012
Chelmsford, MA
Wanted to bump this and see what your opinions are. I'm feeling the same way and want to eliminate google, facebook, etc. Is ProtonMail worth it? How is the app on mobile?

Finding a replacement for gmail and chrome which satisfies my desire to not be tracked is the order of the day for me.