AnonAddy lets users create aliases that forward to their email address. Can be self-hosted. Source code on GitHub.
SimpleLogin allows you to easily create aliases for your email. Can be self-hosted. Source code on GitHub.
Please note we are not affiliated with any of the providers we recommend. This allows us to provide completely objective recommendations. We have developed a clear set of requirements for any Email provider wishing to be recommended, including implementing industry best practices, modern technology and more. We suggest you familiarize yourself with this list before choosing an Email provider, and conduct your own research to ensure the Email provider you choose is the right choice for you.
Operating outside the five/nine/fourteen-eyes countries is not necessarily a guarantee of privacy, and there are other factors to consider. However, we believe that avoiding these countries is important if you wish to avoid mass government dragnet surveillance, especially from the United States. Read our page on global mass surveillance and avoiding the US and UK to learn more about why we feel this is important.
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We regard these features as important in order to provide a safe and optimal service to users. Users should consider the provider which has the features they require.
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gpg --locate-key example_user@example.comWe prefer our recommended providers to collect as little data as possible.
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Received header field.Best Case:
Email servers deal with a lot of very sensitive data. We expect that providers will adopt best industry practices in order to protect their users.
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p value set to either none, quarantine or reject.Best Case:
You wouldn't trust your finances to someone with a fake identity, so why trust them with your email? We require our recommended providers to be public about their ownership or leadership. We also would like to see frequent transparency reports, especially in regard to how government requests are handled.
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With the email providers we recommend we like to see responsible marketing.
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Must not have any marketing which is irresponsible:
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While not strictly requirements, there are some factors we looked into when determining which providers to recommend.
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a way of encrypting email contents so that nobody but the recipient(s) can read the email message.
The standard way to do email E2EE and have it work between different email providers is with OpenPGP. There are different implementations of the OpenPGP standard, the most common being GnuPG and OpenPGP.js.
There is another standard that was popular with business called S/MIME, however it requires a certificate issued from a Certificate Authority (not all of them issue S/MIME certificates). It has support in Google Workplace and Outlook for Web or Exchange Server 2016, 2019.
Email providers which allow you to use standard access protocols like IMAP and SMTP can be used with any of the email clients we recommend. This can be less secure as you are now relying on email providers to ensure that their encryption implementation works and has not been compromised in anyway.
A smartcard (such as a Yubikey or Nitrokey) works by receiving an encrypted email message from a device (phone, tablet, computer etc) running an email/webmail client. The message is then decrypted by the smartcard and the decrypted content is sent back to the device.
It is advantageous for the decryption to occur on the smartcard so as to avoid possibly exposing your private key to a compromised device.
Email metadata is able to be seen by your email client software (or webmail) and any servers relaying the message from you to any recipients. Sometimes email servers will also use external parties to protect against spam.
Email software will often show some visible headers that you may have seen such as: To, From, Cc, Date, Subject.
Client software may use it to show who a message is from and what time it was received. Servers may use it to determine where an email message must be sent, among other purposes not transparent to the user.
Email metadata is stored in the message header of the email message.
Email metadata is crucial to the most basic functionality of email (where it came from, and where it has to go). E2EE was not built into the email protocols originally and is also optional, therefore, only the message content is protected.
When emails travel between email providers an encrypted connection is negotiated using Opportunistic TLS. This protects the metadata from outside observers, but as it is not E2EE, server administrators can snoop on the metadata of an email.
AnonAddy lets users create aliases that forward to their email address. Can be self-hosted. Source code on GitHub.
SimpleLogin allows you to easily create aliases for your email. Can be self-hosted. Source code on GitHub.
Advanced users may consider setting up their own email server. Mailservers require attention and continuous maintenance in order to keep things secure and mail delivery reliable.
Mail-in-a-Box is an automated setup script for deploying a mail server on Ubuntu. Its goal is to make it easier for users to set up their own mail server.
Mailcow is a more advanced mail server perfect for those with a bit more Linux experience. It has everything you need in a Docker container: A mailserver with DKIM support, antivirus and spam monitoring, webmail and ActiveSync with SOGo, and web-based administration with 2FA support. Mailcow Dockerized docs
For a more manual approach we've picked out these two articles.