Email Privacy thread

Another test site: https://mxtoolbox.com/.

 

http://smtp-25.blogspot.com/2012/03/to-check-tls.html shows an OpenSSL "Command to get information about TLS communication for a recipient system." The link in post #24 mentions this also, but doesn't show the entire OpenSSL command to use.

 

Yandex email is another strong contender, IMHO. They are based in Russia. I posted more info about Yandex email at https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/a-good-gmail-alterative.355809/page-4#post-2377174.

Note: please avoid making political comments, or else this thread may be closed.

 

I use "vmail.me" sometimes... was wondering how it would fare through your rigorous testing?...

 

I had that one in my notes already:

• There's some info on vmail.me at http://thesimplecomputer.info/free-webmail-for-better-privacy and http://prxbx.com/email/.
• Web server SSL Labs report is "A+".
• Apparently isn't run by a business.
  
• Some have said it's unreliable. I didn't test it personally though.
  
• Hides IP address in emails.
  
• Encrypts incoming (from the email server's point of view) email if possible, and with forward secrecy if possible.
  
• I didn't test encryption of outgoing (from the email server's point of view) email. You can though with several of the links mentioned in this thread.
• Mail server report: https://ssl-tools.net/mailservers/vmail.me.

Since I am looking for email service from an established business, vmail.me doesn't fit that criteria. If it turns out that vmail.me can encrypt outgoing email, and you like (or don't mind) that it's not from an established business, and the alleged reliability issues don't bother you (or aren't accurate), then I'd consider vmail.me a good option.

 

If anyone is interested, these are the free email providers that I have listed in my notes:
vfemail.net
zoho.com
aol.com
gmx.com
vmail.me
openmailbox.org
mailoo.org
unseen.is
autistici.org
riseup.com
mail.yandex.com
hushmail.com

 

Thanks Cloneranger for starting this thread and thanks MrBrian for all your work on this.

 

New Gmail data shows the rise of backbone email encryption

@Reality: You're welcome .

 

I haven't tested to see if it encrypts outgoing mail... to be completely honest was hoping you had since you said you looked into it already and seem to be thorough about this stuff.

I don't mind that it's not from an establish company at all, as I don't find most established companies to be trustworthy these days anyhow. In fact I'd prefer the company be small and/or unknown... less chance that "the man" has infiltrated it.

Thanks a lot for the hard work and recommendations MrBrian

 

You're welcome .

 

Now I finally get the motivation to test it out and I can't get the site to work. Maybe some element I have blocked, who knows, sometimes I'm too secure for my own good. So if someone could get that to work and test it out I'd be much obliged.

As for vmail being unreliable, I can attest to that being the case (in the past), but it no longer is. I used to get a lot of mail "returned to sender", from gmail all the time of all things, making it virtually unusable since everyone and their mother uses gmail. But no more.

All the signs I see indicate that it's an outfit that's genuine about it's aims, though perhaps not completely competent. It looks like they got help from Roundcube to do things they could not do themselves, and that smoothed things out. And now the main, if not only hangup is lack of resources/server space. As one can see you cannot even sign up for new accounts right now, and that's been the case for the most part for awhile now. On one hand that's another sign they've bitten off more than they can chew. But on the other more evidence that they're not some shady outfit, or they'd be well funded, better organized, and wouldn't be turning away any potential "marks" for sure. But face the problem of offering an already quality free service with not much to gain for their paid accounts (probably just more space and not much more, though I haven't looked closely at the plans). And often this is a kiss of death for such services... victims of their own generosity/quality of free service. Much like lifetime subs for great software. So who knows if they'll last. Probably not since it actually seems like a good thing.

 

@luciddream: Vmail.me is on some email blacklists, according to http://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx?action=blacklist:vmail.me&run=networktools.

 

Seems like some very mixed results... who to trust? That's really the question these days. There would be obvious motives to steer people away from a quality/legit/trustworthy service. I'm sticking with it until I see something more convincing. But then I don't share anything sensitive with anyone over a box connected to the net these days.

 

After further review it looks like vmail is not specifically on any blacklist there. That site is just showing you methods on how to determine whether or not any domain/IP/host warrants being put on a blacklist, and leaves the work to you. At least that's what I gather. And after all the checking I've done vmail seems to come back clean & trustworthy.

 

I've been looking at a freebie email service and unfortunately Vmails free offering doesn't hide your IP address. Im looking for an alternative to Hushmail which does.

 

See post #4.

 

I'm pretty sure that vmail.me is usable via Tor.

 

Oh, I saw it was blacklisted by 6 sources, all based on 1 IP, and given the green/OK by 97 others. If I were using VT Hash Check to scan a file and saw these results I'd consider it almost definitely a false positive. And when combined with all the other resources I've used to check the site (including several you've graciously provided here), it makes it seem even more-so to be the case.

Then when I look at the criteria for what can land you on the blacklists of the ones that flagged them it makes sense even more. Poor server configuration, which I cited myself in here was the case with them. At the beginning it was a mess. And even after cleaning things up it seems they still have no server space, hence the inability to create new (free) accounts at the time. And another thing to land you on one of these blacklists: "dynamic IP addresses previously used by spammers". Well heck... based on that criteria you, I and everyone else could be blacklisted.

So I would hardly let those results deter me. In fact to the contrary it makes me even more confident in them.

 

From [Microsoft]Advancing our encryption and transparency efforts: