Tutanota free private mail service (open-source)

[Tar_Ni]

Hi,

I've come across a German mail service called Tutanota and it looks very interesting. It allows users to send encrypted mail and get access to a mail box for free (1GB of storage). Plus, they released the source code for anyone to see.

“After the revelations by Edward Snowden last summer, we have decided to release our secure email solution to the public for free, making it available to everybody worldwide. We do not want to live in a world with massive spying on innocent individuals. That’s why Tutanota will be forever free with 1 GB of free storage. All data is encrypted locally on your device before being transmitted to our German-based servers. The data cannot be accessed by anybody. Not even we have access. This also means that we cannot reset passwords. Since we cannot access user data, we cannot hand it over. Your emails with Tutanota are private and stay private.”

From: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/secure-email-provider-tutanota-open-source/


It's still in beta and they are working on a mobile app but it could be a great option for those of use who care about privacy.

https://tutanota.com/#!home

[Linuxratty]

Passing this one along. Good find.

[sudodus]

Interesting :-)

I hope Tutanota will be easier to use than Enigmail.

[fkkroundabout]

there's also protonmail, a swiss based anonymity conscious e-mail that went well over target on a crowd funding site. but they are overloaded with applicants, so it may be a while until you can create an e-mail address with them

[Tar_Ni]

there's also protonmail, a swiss based anonymity conscious e-mail that went well over target on a crowd funding site. but they are overloaded with applicants, so it may be a while until you can create an e-mail address with them

I didn't know about ProtonMail, thanks.

BTW while doing research about an hour ago I just found out about Lavaboom too, another Germany-based private mail service with encryption soon to be made available. Lavaboom is meant to be the next generation of Lavabit, a defunct mail service shut down pending a court order for it's usage by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

See: https://lavaboom.com/about

I like these initiatives, really. They are still in beta so acess may be limited at this point but clearly these folks are working hard to provide truly private mail services easily accessible for everyone.

[fkkroundabout]

it's interesting to note all almost all these companies are german - i don't think that's a coincidence ?

[/ADM]

Only problem I have with these 'secure' email clients like this are that if you send any email to other addresses like Gmail or Outlook, then you pretty much loose the point in using it. I cannot see dragging all my family members over to this. So using it would be meaningless.

[Tar_Ni]

Only problem I have with these 'secure' email clients like this are that if you send any email to other addresses like Gmail or Outlook, then you pretty much loose the point in using it. I cannot see dragging all my family members over to this. So using it would be meaningless.

Well, at least you know that the NSA won't be snooping in your mailbox. Even your password is encrypted, you cannot recover it if forgotten. These services are based in foreign countries (Germany and Switzerland) where privacy laws are crystal clear. You see, the NSA cannot force these compagnies to allow the handing-over of data for mining purposes. We have learned - thanks to Edward Snowden - how such abuses can be made, how massive state surveillance program ( like PRISM) have been put in place.

[DtchUb]

Only problem I have with these 'secure' email clients like this are that if you send any email to other addresses like Gmail or Outlook, then you pretty much loose the point in using it. I cannot see dragging all my family members over to this. So using it would be meaningless.

Totally agree but having just tried out Tutanota, sending an encrypted message to a standard email account works quite nicely.

It sends a notification email that says they have received a confidential message and to click here to read it. Clicking the link opens up a browser window, where the recipient can enter a pre-agreed password and read the email.

The clever part is that it looks like this page is a sort of temporary guest account. You can read and then send an encrypted reply within that temporary web page. No registration is needed on the part of the recipient.

I love that this provides a simple solution where I can finally email friends who own gmail accounts, without my messages being data mined by google.

(BTW, you can also un-tick the lock icon and send regular emails to anyone).

[markodd]

There's also https://scryptmail.com/login

Both of these (scryptmail and tutanota) seem to be better than protonmail... Protonmail has been a huge disappointment to me.. They've so much money and they've done so little yet. They're, apparently, hiring now though.. So hopefully they'll fasten the pace.

[mastablasta]

You see, the NSA cannot force these compagnies to allow the handing-over of data for mining purposes. We have learned - thanks to Edward Snowden - how such abuses can be made, how massive state surveillance program ( like PRISM) have been put in place.

I am sure they are very interested in my doctors appointments, my grocery shop lists, subscribed LOL, Minecraft and some kid's catoons videos and special offers from various web shops. oh an a few newsletters that even I rarely read. yes i am sure this kind of email makes a fascinating read...

[markodd]

I am sure they are very interested in my doctors appointments, my grocery shop lists, subscribed LOL, Minecraft and some kid's catoons videos and special offers from various web shops. oh an a few newsletters that even I rarely read. yes i am sure this kind of email makes a fascinating read...

Actually, they are, yes.

[Linuxratty]

I am sure they are very interested in my doctors appointments, my grocery shop lists, subscribed LOL, Minecraft and some kid's catoons videos and special offers from various web shops. oh an a few newsletters that even I rarely read. yes i am sure this kind of email makes a fascinating read...

Oh yes,I bet they hang on every word. They probably think Minecraft is code for something very sinister disguised as a game.

[Tar_Ni]

Besides the fact that Tutanota is privacy-oriented, the web app has a very uncluttered and simple interface, which is great. It's very fast and I like my mailbox to be plain and simple. You can say farewell to spammers. Tutanota does the job and even in Beta their servers capacity can handle still millions of users.

[winst0n2]

Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely check it out. Open source and encrypted, that's a game changer! http://ubuntuforums.org/images/icons/icon11.png

[Tar_Ni]

The only thing that may feel unusual is that you can only subscribe for a tutanota.de email adress at this point. It's a german domain. But I've read that they plan to add a .com domain somewhere in 2015.

[fkkroundabout]

I am sure they are very interested in my doctors appointments, my grocery shop lists, subscribed LOL, Minecraft and some kid's catoons videos and special offers from various web shops. oh an a few newsletters that even I rarely read. yes i am sure this kind of email makes a fascinating read...

well it's a company that's based entirely on advertising through data mining, so i think you'd be surprised by how much could be guaged from you day to day activity. every single search made, every video watched, all websites visited with any form of google services (e.g. +1 button, analytics, maps, or ad network), etc etc is all logged

here's a list i came up with, after thinking about it for a little:

physical location
physical details
future plans
associated people
purchasing power
general interests
technological competence

personally i believe we should be cautious of handing over all the details of our lives to any business [or government], so i left all *almost all* google services and deleted my accounts, using only a couple services here and there that i either cannot find an alternative to or have not moved away from yet

edit: also something on my mind about google becoming too much the 'gatekeepers' of the entire internet - too much power over everyones' experience, choices, etc

[Georges_Bouchard]

well it's a company that's based entirely on advertising through data mining, so i think you'd be surprised by how much could be guaged from you day to day activity. every single search made, every video watched, all websites visited with any form of google services (e.g. +1 button, analytics, maps, or ad network), etc etc is all logged

here's a list i came up with, after thinking about it for a little:

physical location
physical details
future plans
associated people
purchasing power
general interests
technological competence

personally i believe we should be cautious of handing over all the details of our lives to any business [or government], so i left all *almost all* google services and deleted my accounts, using only a couple services here and there that i either cannot find an alternative to or have not moved away from yet

edit: also something on my mind about Google becoming too much the 'gatekeepers' of the entire internet - too much power over everyones' experience, choices, etc

You are absolutely correct. I had a paid Google account with a unique sub-domain under the Google umbrella. They commingled my original gmail address with the paid account and completely violated my personal privacy in a very public way. Google has become extremely insidious, and I want nothing to do with them. Unfortunately I have an Android cell phone and that means the Google App Store which they nonsensically renamed the Google Play Store. Google's intrusion into your private life is far worse than the NSA every could be. The NSA may be monitoring your communications, but they are not plastering it all over the Internet with a picture of your house. Google should be closed down. It is a hideous operation. And yes, I do have a Tutanota account as a result of the fiasco with Google. One warning though, Tutanoto offers an alias email address but then combines your original user name with it, which is just plain stupid, and shows their own lack of concern for privacy. Also there is no actual proof that email sent out from your computer is actually encrypted before it leaves your computer as there is no preview view that allows you to see what is going out. I would have never known about the User Name issue had I not been warned by a recipient of one of my emails. So Tutanota is better than Google in that they are not tracking and posting your every move, however their email is far from being completely private.

[Georges_Bouchard]

Having used Tutanota for a few days, it's falling very short. Worst is I cannot enter text into the reply window from the Android App. Presently it's somewhat of a toy app, where you pretend to have some security and privacy that is most likely non-existent. I did contribute €25.00 to their effort, but it may have been premature. Another issue was that the Android app opened up directly to the email without a logon password, and I'm very certain that I never checked the box to save the password on the system. Also a recipient reported that they were able to open a supposed encrypted email without any password at all. Then they saw replies to other messages that they did not know I had sent. So who knows? I have suspicions that Tutanota could be an arm of the BND since the BND has already been charged with colluding with the NSA to spy on France. Another possibility is that the code put up on GITHUB is not the code that is actually used. Again who really knows? How many of you actually think America landed men on the moon?

[night_sky2]

I don't think any mail provider can be ''completely private''. If the NSA or any other spy agencies absolutely want to crack the code and intercept communications they will probably find a way do it. In fact, by using these self-proclaimed Private & Anonymous mail services you are probably drawing more attention on you, as you are more likely to be singled out. That's a sad reality.

That said, I applaud Tutanota's efforts to make a decent, free and open source mail service available to all. The more choices we have, the better. But as for myself, I'll stick with Hotmail/Outlook. I have nothing to complain, this is pretty good mail box I've grown used to over the years and with 15 GB of cloud storage available. Sure, my emails are going through MS servers and are probably exposed to preying eyes but then pretty much everything you do on the internet falls short of anonymity. All things considered, I'll keep advocating for common sense when using the web.

[mikodo]

Totally agree but having just tried out Tutanota, sending an encrypted message to a standard email account works quite nicely.

It sends a notification email that says they have received a confidential message and to click here to read it. Clicking the link opens up a browser window, where the recipient can enter a pre-agreed password and read the email.

The clever part is that it looks like this page is a sort of temporary guest account. You can read and then send an encrypted reply within that temporary web page. No registration is needed on the part of the recipient.

I love that this provides a simple solution where I can finally email friends who own gmail accounts, without my messages being data mined by google.

Ya, like others have said, I don't really give a hoot if NSA or Google has the ability to read my boring stuff in emails. I am not against others having differing views about it. I do think that services like this, are helping "push back", on the way our online activities has become in matters of personal privacy. I tried the service a few months ago, with a couple of friends, and I all I got from them after they responded through the Tutanota servers was, "WTH do I need this for?" So, it has not been used by me since. I do hope these services become more the norm, for people that want it.

[winst0n2]

Just found out that it works on my Ubuntu phone now: https://tutanota.de/blog/posts/release-notes-1-9-4

Finally!