Are private email providers worth it? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 1 week ago by notarobot@lemmy.zip to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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I think I know the answer, bit maybe I'm missing something

Since proton only sends and receives encrypted emails to other proton accounts, that means that when you get or send an email to someone else, they have to send / receive unencrypted and there is no way for us to verify what they are doing. Right?

Also if most accounts are google Microsoft, they still get 90% of my emails. By switching to proton I think I've gained nothing, while losing convenience , added another trust point, and having two different companies have my data instead of just one

Proton drive, calendar and VPN I think are fine

Sorry for the poor syntax. I'm at work working on email related things, and this topic kept distracting me. I might correct it later

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[-] solrize@lemmy.ml 19 points 1 week ago

Mail transport these days is usually encrypted over the wire, but once it lands at the receiving server (i.e. gmail) it is stored in the clear, or at least in a way that the host can read it.

[-] notarobot@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago

Exactly. It has to be sent unencrypted. So there is no way to know what either of the providers are doing and is just a big "trust me bro"

[-] solrize@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 week ago

It's usually sent encrypted (by TLS) so it can't be read by external entities monitoring internet traffic. Then the host decrypts it and stores it and can access it. Yes it's trust me bro. Email is fundamentally not all that private, because of that.

this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2025

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