Protonmail is a great service, as long as you keep in mind that it's more like an encrypted instant messaging service than email. The reason I say that is because, as I understand it, Protonmail is only encrypted if both parties communicating, are using Protonmail. If you use Protonmail to communicate with someone not using Protonmail, it is not encrypted. Therefore, what advantage does Protonmail have over other encrypted instant messengers like Signal, or Wire? That doesn't mean Protonmail is less useful than Signal or Wire, but to think of it as encrypted email is a bit misleading. I'm sure there's a better way to state this, but as I was originally mislead by the idea of Protonmail, that means there's at least a few others like me out there.
On Thu, Jan 9, 2020 at 8:24 PM Keith Lofstrom <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, Jan 08, 2020 at 05:13:46PM -0800, Rich Shepard wrote: > > Free email account sign up - ProtonMail > > [Search domain protonmail.com/signup] https://protonmail.com/signup > > Select Your ProtonMail Account Type. ProtonMail is a free email service > for > > the public good. You can help support online privacy by selecting a paid > > account. Your contribution helps us support more users and continue to > > develop ProtonMail as free and open source software. > > While I currently use a free Protonmail account, I did pay > to sign up with them when they started, years ago. > Usually I just use my own email server, but for sensitive > conversations I use Protonmail to Protonmail exclusively. > And by sensitive, I don't mean "Illegal in the US in 2020", > but what might mean trouble somewhere, someday, for me or > the person I'm communicating with. Email through public > channels is forever. > > If you want to discuss something with me away from prying > eyes (now, or into an unknown future), get a Protonmail > account NOW, when signing up for that does not raise a > flag the way it will in a higher surveillance, higher > paranoia future. > > Log in occasionally, surf a few static pages, log out, > even if you are not expecting any emails. Just to > establish a routine that you might need in the future. > > While some of us moan about recent US leaders (and their > supporters moan about some of us), they are nowhere near > the same league as Hitler and Himmler (yet). When one > of those comes along, it may be too late to sign up for > Protonmail without attracting "special attention." > In such times, if you sent my home server email account > something interpretable as subversive, I will disown > you if interrogated. > > I don't bring this up to start a political wrangle, but > to suggest that all of us, regardless of our position > on the political spectrum, need a safe channel to talk. > This email list, BTW, is NOT a safe channel. > > Keith > > -- > Keith Lofstrom [email protected] > _______________________________________________ > PLUG mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
