There is a third way to set up user-controlled e-mail – through a
democratic association.
I'm at the board of Fripost, a democratic, non-profit organization based in
Gothenburg, Sweden. We provide an e-mail solution (we don't like to call it a
service) for ourselves, the members, and we follow strict democratic
procedures; board meetings are open to the public, we publish the minutes
online, etc. We also use only free software to run and administrate the
servers and recommend only free software in our propaganda.
Technical details: we use IMAP and members can access their e-mails either
though his/her own client or via a web interface (Roundcube).
Sadly, all companies, ISP's, or any one hosting emails has to comply to
lawful regulations,
which state that all "electronic communications" must be stored/archived
(currently it's 6 months in the EU and 2 years in the US & UK).
Not exactly. Sweden has implemented the Data Retention Directive, but
fortunately it doesn't apply to non-profits and thus we are not obliged to
store any data. Since the association was founded we have also never been
approached by the authorities.
Please check out our latest talk from FSCONS last month.
