Many unknown anonymizers

Thank you FuzzyLogic.

I have a clearer picture now. I now see what you mean about what's the use of choosing a server in another location from where one is (jurisdiction etc).

What do you think about the secure email?

I'm looking for a paying email account because I no longer wish to have ads embedded in emails I send to people.

What do you think about the IP being hidden in the headers? I mean, from the point of view of protecting oneself from eavesdropping, email ID theft etc. Is hiding one's IP in email headers a good extra security against whatever malicious people are up to?

Do certain people, or rather certain email clients and websites, block emails that contain no IP in them? I mean, the spam filters integrated in email clients/websites, do they block emails with no IP in header?

It wouldn't be good if we pay for a secure email that hides our IP and then some of our emails would be marked spam in the receiver's inbox. I don't know how spam filters filter so this is just a thought that came to mind.

I appreciate your giving time and any feedback.

Best regards.

 

really doubt a paid email service would be blocked, unless they do not care about spammers and thats very bad for business in most cases. Blocking via no/different ip address is rather ineffective way of blocking emails, you can always change/forge another ip address.

There are other besides neomailbox which remove header info from emails, lavabit does the same thing as well as mutemail and safe-mail.

Secure email is really up to you whether or not what emails you get are that important, i guess if you get alot of bank emails/bills via email and wish for the extra protection then go for it. For basic private email then lavabit stands out for quality and effectiveness for money, they encrypt your email on the servers as well as encrypt to and from the servers but not the the sender, thats where you'll have to use GPG to encrypt them yourself. Through on the downside they are hosted in the US so if that does help you then probably neomailbox should be good second option.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

I had failed to find Lavabit before reading your post. Interesting. Thanks for pointing out to me their great feature of server encryption for stored emails.

I give them credit for the openess and thorough information provided on the website, with no emphasis on "secure email" as a marketing catch. I believe they really do put their principles first and it looks like their values are the motor of their project rather than just a marketing tool (like many do). Out of all the email services providers I've visited until now, they come out as the most transparent and trustworthy along with NeoMailbox.

I opened a free account for test. I might say that the webmail lacks features, but as they say they are growing rapidly and improving their features constantly.

Still investigating into NeoMailbox. I'm trying to find out if they encrypt email storage on their servers like Lavabit. Waiting for a reply. I'll post here to update that.

Regarding NeoMailbox choice of email servers, Netherland's policies on private data protection has more to offer to the individual than a US-based email server, that's clear. See here if you're interested. I have to say that the policies in the US with p.a.t.r.i.o.t. act are really something.

I'm also enquiring if they will add in a near future secure email services through their Switzerland-based servers, as Switzerland offers one of the best guarantees when it comes to indivdual private data protection, in terms of official policies, in the world.

Thanks for the exchange. Best regards.

 

Switzerland is a data retention country. For years they have logged all email traffic for 6 months. It does have good privacy protection for an individual compared to many others but after 9/11 even the Swiss privacy protection has loosened to covertly accomodate The Patriot Act. Look for website policies. Many which refer to laws are dated November 2001. This of course doesn't apply to Swiss services only.

 

Hello AnonG,

After reading your post I decided to enquire.

I was under the (wrong) impresson that because of certain safeguards existing within the Swiss legislative system (such as the referendum enabling citizens to challenge laws, the Transparency Act and the existence of a Federal Data Protection & Information Commissioner who's role is, amongst others, to supervise infringmenets to data protection and supervise federal bodies), Switzerland was "safer" when it comes to government bodies seeking to intercept communications.

However, I see after looking into it that it's not the case at all. I was also under the wrong assumption that there were more safeguards to protect privacy and data, because some websites I've seen speak of Switzerland as "Switzerland is outside the EU and is not subject to the EU directive on data-retention. Comprehensive privacy legislation makes Switzerland one of the most privacy oriented jurisdictions in the world" (quote).

All this lead me to think that it was a place relatively less affected by privacy infringement than perhaps other areas more notorious for that.

But after reading a few article (perhaps this is the website you were reffering to), I get a clearer picture. I see that I was too quick to give Switzerland a good reputation in terms of privacy/data protection. I should've done more research before making the claim.

We learn as we go ... thanks for rectifying.

Best regards.

 

6 months is that all )?, UK is kicking Swiss ass for that one, 2 years of logging all emails, sms, phone and internet sessions. From my prospective it still requires alot of work to get to that information and there are still some good safeguards on what can and cannot be done.

Better than some countries that have no or very 'loose' definations of privacy. Still some countries haven't lost their backbone and still have good privacy laws, Netherlands, Luxembourg, etc would be ideal new places to place good proxies/email services.

Anyway getting back to business, keep us informed about lavabit and neomailbox, i'd be interested in what you think of their services.

 

I see you are quit uninformed regarding The Netherlands.
That country has new legislation coming up, later this year.
The manufacturing of it has been going on for a couple of years now.
Although it got some criticism from several privacy-watchdogs en Internet Service Providers, it still got from parlement to the senate and will now, later 2009, be voted by the sitting government itself.
Because it has been passed by the complete parlement, it will for certainly be actual law by the end of this year.

This concerns logs of internet- and cellphone traffic, for a period (I thought) of 6 months or 9.

Just to let you know.