ProtonMail - why use it? [MERGED]

[sracer]

I've been using Gmail since it was a beta-by-invitation-only offering as well as Yahoo (my first non-AOL email account) and Hotmail. Gmail's spam filtering is the best of the three... but then again, that is my primary email account and use it for correspondence and ecommerce sites. I see only about 1 spam email in my inbox every 2 weeks. (the spam folder shows about 6 spam emails a day)

I use Yahoo as a throw-away for accessing sites that require email registration. Hotmail/Outlook only for Bing rewards and Office 365.

I've since included Mail.com and ProtonMail. Initially, it was to add a little protection against name-squatting, but I really do like them for the services they provide. One pleasant surprise is that Mail.com offers the web version of LibreOffice.

If Google starts to get funky with unblockable ads in Gmail, then my plan is to ditch it for ProtonMail.

 

[pshufd]

I've been using Gmail since it was a beta-by-invitation-only offering as well as Yahoo (my first non-AOL email account) and Hotmail. Gmail's spam filtering is the best of the three... but then again, that is my primary email account and use it for correspondence and ecommerce sites. I see only about 1 spam email in my inbox every 2 weeks. (the spam folder shows about 6 spam emails a day)

I use Yahoo as a throw-away for accessing sites that require email registration. Hotmail/Outlook only for Bing rewards and Office 365.

I've since included Mail.com and ProtonMail. Initially, it was to add a little protection against name-squatting, but I really do like them for the services they provide. One pleasant surprise is that Mail.com offers the web version of LibreOffice.

If Google starts to get funky with unblockable ads in Gmail, then my plan is to ditch it for ProtonMail.

I didn't know that there's a web version of LibreOffice. Sounds interesting. I use it on macOS and save files to iCloud Files but it would be interesting to see how it runs on the web too.

 

[maflynn]

So I had a bit of a problem with Protonmail. Originally I had a .gg TLD because the name I picked only had that, but the more I thought about it the less I liked that domain. I came up with a good domain name that had a .net available and boom I was off to the races.

Since my plan offered multiple custom domains I added the second one, gone through the validation and the next day I started using it. Problem is by the end of the day I lost validation and it stopped working. The solution I'm trying is that I removed the .gg custom domain from proton, removed the .net, and the dns entries. I took some time with for the dns changes to sync up and then re-added the .net to protonmail.

I'm now in the waiting game, but it seemed I found one issue where people were having issues when having multiple custom domains losing their validation. I'll stick with one, and I'm cautiously optimistic

I may ask this in the support forums, and see what others have to say

Overall, I'm really pleased with PM (aside from this one issue), and I'll be just spending time on my icloud hacking away at the mountain of spam and unwanted emails and having that account mostly dormant.

 

[circatee]

Honestly, I keep forgetting that I even have an iCloud/ME email address.
I looked into Protonmail a while back, but, never fully vested into it.

With the sheer volume of spam in my Outlook Dot Com account, I have been thinking to move. But, my account is at least 10 years old! I might look into using my iCloud/ME account. My Gmail account is there, but, I do not use it. Rather interesting that you're getting lots of spam with iCloud. I suppose no email is devoid of spam these days...

 

[maflynn]

With the sheer volume of spam in my Outlook Dot Com account,

my account is at least 10 years old!

Apple introduced iTools (now iCloud) back in 2000, I signed up early and have been largely using that as my exclusive email since. I'm actually kind of surprised its that old. I had to google when apple introduced iTools. Anyways, probably for the past few years I got lazy and used my actual email address when filling out information on websites. Nothing sketchy, or bad, just normal commerce, social, nondescript sites. Time has caught up to me where I can easily have 1,000 unopened emails with the vast majority of them being spammy

With the sheer volume of spam in my Outlook Dot Com account,

My wife has been using Hotmail since I've known her and its crippling for her

I'm making progress in my migration, each morning, where I get emails, I'll go through my inbox and either select unsubscribe - for non-sketchy emails, a filter to delete the incoming emails from that sender or update my email settings to move it to ProtonMail.

I'm estimating that within a month I should start to notice a significant decrease in what's ending up in my icloud email address. I'm still going to keep using it, but it won't be my primary email address

 

[circatee]

Apple introduced iTools (now iCloud) back in 2000, I signed up early and have been largely using that as my exclusive email since. I'm actually kind of surprised its that old. I had to google when apple introduced iTools. Anyways, probably for the past few years I got lazy and used my actual email address when filling out information on websites. Nothing sketchy, or bad, just normal commerce, social, nondescript sites. Time has caught up to me where I can easily have 1,000 unopened emails with the vast majority of them being spammy



My wife has been using Hotmail since I've known her and its crippling for her

I'm making progress in my migration, each morning, where I get emails, I'll go through my inbox and either select unsubscribe - for non-sketchy emails, a filter to delete the incoming emails from that sender or update my email settings to move it to ProtonMail.

I'm estimating that within a month I should start to notice a significant decrease in what's ending up in my icloud email address. I'm still going to keep using it, but it won't be my primary email address

Keep us abreast of progress…

 

[SG83]

So I started thinking about ProtonMail lately and I see a lot of talk regarding how much better it is vs. Gmail - no argument, therre. Almost anything is better then gmail.

Anyways, I'm assuming most of us use iCloud, so I'd like to see if there's any protonmail users here and why they opted for that over iCloud?

I understand the point to point encryption, but if you encrypt an email, then you have to supply a password. That becomes very cumbersome as you send out emails. I work with banks, and financial, and health institutions, and each one has a method to encrypt emails, so I'm familiar with the work effort. Most people avoid going that route, provided PHI, PI, HIPPA information isn't being discussed.

Bottom line, what makes protonmail better then icloud (for those using protonmail)?

while protonmail may be secure when exchanging mail within the same domain, most of it's benefits dissappear when you exchange mail with other servers.

personally I prefer other clients, as i had a doubtful pleasure to use protonvpn and protonmail so i dont have my hopes high for their drive version.

 

[Hele]

I'm a big fan of both Proton and Apple, so I use both. Proton is e2ee between ProtonMail users, and I'm an iCloud+ user so I have Hide My Email with my iCloud email. My email use is highly compartmentalized, so I have many. Here's the list from most important to least important:

Protonmail (I use it for my iCloud account, Bitwarden account, my website and domain accounts, and insurance/utilities etc.)
iCloud (to quickly hand out to random not-so-important contacts and for reasonably important newsletters using Hide My Email generated addresses)

Several Outlook and Gmail accounts I keep around which I used to use for reasonably important stuff but have gotten away from using by shifting most of that stuff to iCloud

A Yandex account I use for some newsletters

Several older Yahoo and Aim/AOL accounts from back in the day which mostly accumulate junk now

All the email accounts are in my iPhone's Mail app except the Proton ones (I have two) which live in their own iOS app.

 

[MacDaddyPanda]

I had used Protonmail for a while along with all the others. But after watching a few tech youtubers talk about how email is essentially un-secure no matter what. Protonmail is only effective if the recipient is also using Protonmail. I've resorted to just using a compartmentalized method of having emails. Just using specific accounts for specific activities. i.e. one for financial, one for shopping, one for social media, one for misc junk. etc. This has worked well for me. And the only email account I get constant email junk is the ones I use for shopping. All the others I rarely if ever get spam/junk.

 

[maflynn]

while protonmail may be secure when exchanging mail within the same domain, most of it's benefits dissappear when you exchange mail with other servers.

Yup, though if you email sensitive material, you can send an encrypted email that the recipient would need a password to view.

as i had a doubtful pleasure to use protonvpn and protonmail

What doubtful pleasure did you run into with Proton's VPN and email services?

But after watching a few tech youtubers talk about how email is essentially un-secure no matter what. Protonmail is only effective if the recipient is also using Protonmail.

The normal transport is not as secure, but there's other features that PM offers that I'm hoping will align with my wants and needs. I'm hoping their spam filter is superior, I find their rules, and management have a finer degree of granularity and control.

 

[SG83]

Yup, though if you email sensitive material, you can send an encrypted email that the recipient would need a password to view.

What doubtful pleasure did you run into with Proton's VPN and email services?


The normal transport is not as secure, but there's other features that PM offers that I'm hoping will align with my wants and needs. I'm hoping their spam filter is superior, I find their rules, and management have a finer degree of granularity and control.

AFAIK their mail is only secure when done between accounts. when sent away it's being read anyway by the systems it goes through/to.

if you need a proper encryption, you should use gpg/pgp which may or may not be supported by your email app and are, sometimes, PITA to use. And even after being configured properly, metadata of your (encrypted) emails are still readable. If you don't want it, you may be interested in off the record communication ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-the-Record_Messaging ).

and i've used their (free) vpn, well- it doesn't lag as badly as nordvpn but it isn't way better. and has an idiotic UI if you ask me. mullvad ftw!

 

[maflynn]

and i've used their (free) vpn, well- it doesn't lag as badly as nordvpn but it isn't way better.

Since I'm on the paid tier for the mail, I get access to the non-free VPN servers and there's a big difference, as there are many servers to choose from and you can see which ones are under utilized.

I tested the VPN against ExpressVPN and it wasn't terrible, but ExpressVPN was faster but not by a huge margin

 

[Tdude96]

I've been saying I need to GTHO of gmail for awhile, finally in that process. I've been migrating a lot of things from gmail over to my iCloud account using hide my email. Mostly things that are important and actively used like e-commerce, newsletters, and the like. Figuring I can always cut them off when I want to by simply removing the address they use.

It's hard to get out of gmail, no matter how much I dislike Google and their business practices. I've had an account with them since the beta so there's a ton of things to get switched over that are important but rarely used and I don't even necessarily remember until I need them. So I've been taking it slow, switching one thing over at a time as it comes to mind.

For personal correspondence, and things like that I've been considering Proton Mail, but haven't made a final decision yet. I get just ready to do it, and then go and read reviews that make me question all over again whether it's the best choice.

 

[pshufd]

I've been saying I need to GTHO of gmail for awhile, finally in that process. I've been migrating a lot of things from gmail over to my iCloud account using hide my email. Mostly things that are important and actively used like e-commerce, newsletters, and the like. Figuring I can always cut them off when I want to by simply removing the address they use.

It's hard to get out of gmail, no matter how much I dislike Google and their business practices. I've had an account with them since the beta so there's a ton of things to get switched over that are important but rarely used and I don't even necessarily remember until I need them. So I've been taking it slow, switching one thing over at a time as it comes to mind.

For personal correspondence, and things like that I've been considering Proton Mail, but haven't made a final decision yet. I get just ready to do it, and then go and read reviews that make me question all over again whether it's the best choice.

Let me know if you can figure out how to disable Calendar. I get a morning email with nothing in it as I use iCloud for calendar now.

 

[maflynn]

I've resorted to just using a compartmentalized method of having emails. Just using specific accounts for specific activities. i.e. one for financial, one for shopping, one for social media, one for misc junk. etc.

This is what I'm doing with PM. I know there's many ways to skin a cat, and my solution isn't for everyone.

As it stands, my iCloud account was getting drowned out in spam, some of it self-inflicted some of it just natural spam. Its too early to tell how Protomail is going because I'm still transitioning, so not seeing any spam isn't a sign its better then icloud - its just to early to make any sort pronouncement.

The next step is to start migrating my financial institutions to Protobmail. I have the few social media sites that I use on PM. I've stopped giving out my icloud account to sites, and use PM. For ones that will likely generate spam, I'll use junk@<mydomain.com>

 

[circatee]

Honestly, I keep forgetting that I even have an iCloud/ME email address.
I looked into Protonmail a while back, but, never fully vested into it.

With the sheer volume of spam in my Outlook Dot Com account, I have been thinking to move. But, my account is at least 10 years old! I might look into using my iCloud/ME account. My Gmail account is there, but, I do not use it. Rather interesting that you're getting lots of spam with iCloud. I suppose no email is devoid of spam these days...

Update:
I have had my Outlook Dot Com email forwarded to my iCloud email address. And, thus far, iCloud seems to be filtering quite a bit of it as spam, as it should. Well, compared to what Outlook Dot Com should have been doing.

I will give it another few weeks, then I will look into ProtonMail again...

 

[gregmac19]

In the last year, I have gone through a similar process that the OP is now going through. While I realize that the OP is too far down the road with Proton Mail to consider alternatives, I thought I would post this for others pondering a switch.

While Proton Mail is more popular, I decided to go with Tutanota for the following reasons:

1) Tutanota has desktop clients that can be used offline, whereas Proton Mail gives you a choice of using either your favorite email client or a web app for accessing your email on macOS. I think that using a regular email client defeats one of the purposes of a Proton Mail account, which is security. And despite what the folks at Proton believe, I think that using a web app is inherently less secure than using a dedicated desktop client.

2) Unlike Proton Mail, Tutanota offers end-to-end encrypted storage of all contact details, and encrypts email subject lines.

3) If you forgot or lose your Proton account password, you can restore access to your account, but you wouldn’t be able to read any of your old emails. https://proton.me/support/reset-password. This is not the case with Tutanota.

I think that Tutanota provides a fair comparison of their product versus Proton Mail here: https://tutanota.com/protonmail#switch


Fortunately, I have not had any spam since I made the switch to Tutanota. And while I feel that both Proton Mail and Tutanota are good options, I am very happy I went with the latter.

Edit: In my original post I spelled ProtonMail as one word, but now that I have double-checked Proton's site, I see that it is two words. I changed my post accordingly.

 

[Apple_Robert]

In the last year, I have gone through a similar process that the OP is now going through. While I realize that the OP is too far down the road with ProtonMail to consider alternatives, I thought I would post this for others pondering a switch.

While ProtonMail is more popular, I decided to go with Tutanota for the following reasons:

1) Tutanota has desktop clients that can be used offline, whereas ProtonMail gives you a choice of using either your favorite email client or a web app for accessing your email on macOS. I think that using a regular email client defeats one of the purposes of a ProtonMail account, which is security. And despite what the folks at Proton believe, I think that using a web app is inherently less secure than using a dedicated desktop client.

2) Unlike ProtonMail, Tutanota offers end-to-end encrypted storage of all contact details, and encrypts email subject lines.

3) If you forgot or lose your Proton account password, you can restore access to your account, but you wouldn’t be able to read any of your old emails. https://proton.me/support/reset-password. This is not the case with Tutanota.

I think that Tutanota provides a fair comparison of their product versus ProtonMail here: https://tutanota.com/protonmail#switch


Fortunately, I have not had any spam since I made the switch to Tutanota. And while I feel that both ProtonMail and Tutanota are good options, I am very happy I went with the latter.

I have an account with Tutanota as well and haven't had any problems. I think it is a better alternative than Proton Mail.

 

[maflynn]

3) If you forgot or lose your Proton account password, you can restore access to your account, but you wouldn’t be able to read any of your old emails. https://proton.me/support/reset-password. This is not the case with Tutanota.

So does that mean that Tutanota can decrypt your emails? I can understand why we lose the ability to decrypt our emails with proton. I'm sure there's a lot more to it for both proton and tutanota then I understand

btw, I started looking with them, but I had some track record with proton and so there was a level of comfort and understanding

 

[maflynn]

I think that Tutanota provides a fair comparison of their product versus Proton Mail here: https://tutanota.com/protonmail#switch

I took a bit more deeper dive on their features, and I think overall I'm happy with protonmail. I think for privacy sake, I'm happy with PM being in Switzerland, Tutanota is in Germany - part of the 14 eye consortium .

Also while more money you get a more features, i.e., 500gb for 10GB. More custom domains and more email addresses, encrypted drive and VPN. I get many of those features may not interest most and for a privacy minded email service tutanota is a good choice. For me, I'm happy with my choice

 

[gregmac19]

So does that mean that Tutanota can decrypt your emails?

No, not at all: https://tutanota.com/encryption

Encrypted email service Tutanota now supports a secure password reset. | Tuta

Tutanota comes with a recovery code that enables you to reset your password yourself making sure that no one can abuse the password reset feature to gain access to your email account.

tutanota.com

"Tutanota is in Germany - part of the 14 eye consortium ." Proton has an office in the US - part of the Five Eyes alliance. I don't trust any US intelligence service.

 

[Queen6]

No, not at all: https://tutanota.com/encryption

Encrypted email service Tutanota now supports a secure password reset. | Tuta

Tutanota comes with a recovery code that enables you to reset your password yourself making sure that no one can abuse the password reset feature to gain access to your email account.

tutanota.com

"Tutanota is in Germany - part of the 14 eye consortium ." Proton has an office in the US - part of the Five Eyes alliance. I don't trust any US intelligence service.

Wisely so...

Q-6

 

[maflynn]

No, not at all: https://tutanota.com/encryption

Encrypted email service Tutanota now supports a secure password reset. | Tuta

Tutanota comes with a recovery code that enables you to reset your password yourself making sure that no one can abuse the password reset feature to gain access to your email account.

tutanota.com

"Tutanota is in Germany - part of the 14 eye consortium ." Proton has an office in the US - part of the Five Eyes alliance. I don't trust any US intelligence service.

Since the datacenter and home office is in Switzerland, its out of reach from the 5/9/14 eyes consortium tutanota is not. I'm sure its a fine product but I think I get more bang for my buck, and the services offered by protonmail meet my needs..

Why Proton is based in Switzerland​

Proton Mail and Proton VPN are based in Switzerland, which has some of the world’s strongest privacy laws and is not a signatory to any of these surveillance agreements. This provides an additional layer of legal protection on top of the encryption we utilize.

 

[Queen6]

Since the datacenter and home office is in Switzerland, its out of reach from the 5/9/14 eyes consortium tutanota is not. I'm sure its a fine product but I think I get more bang for my buck, and the services offered by protonmail meet my needs..

I have nothing to hide, equally I very much object to being profiled and spied on. So I'll it make as difficult as possible for all concerned. Good luck to agencies who want to decrypt conversations with my sister on family matters LOL.

Privacy is a basic human right, sadly big tech and majority of governments have decided to ignore this for their sole and own benefit...

IMHO Big Tech needs to be reigned in, as the these companies have far too much power.. Opt in should not be the norm, not automatically opt'd requiring multiple switch's to turn off (W10/W11).Personally I turn off all I can

Q-6

 

[maflynn]

I have nothing to hide, equally I very much object to being profiled and spied on

The same - nothing to hide but I choose to keep my data, and information private. I also have been working to take steps to protect it from hackers. My laptop is stolen, will they have access to my tax returns? For me its a work in progress and my steps taken need to be balanced with integrating with my usage. If its difficult to retrieve, use my data the odds are the safety measures will be skipped.