We know of two other email services that eventually cooperated with the authorities and handed over user data. But most aren’t that committed to their users’ privacy. Several years ago, a US-based encrypted email service called Lavabit shut its doors rather than share private data on its users. National Security Letters are administrative subpoenas that can force companies to secretly spy on citizens, and don’t even require a judge’s signature.ĭemands for information can be accompanied by gag orders that make it a crime for the company to disclose that its customers are being spied upon. It also has many laws allowing the government to spy on virtually anyone on Earth, and to force companies in this jurisdiction to help the government spy on people. The United States is a founding member of the Five Eyes surveillance alliance. Some jurisdictions, such as Switzerland, are far more protective of your privacy than say the United States. No matter how hardcore pro-privacy an email service is, in the end, they must obey the laws of their location (jurisdiction) or go out of business. A safe jurisdiction that respects privacy In the mini-reviews that follow, we’ll let you know what it takes to get copies of your messages and contacts out of Gmail and into the Gmail alternative. The ability to import messages and contacts from GmailĪssuming you are a Gmail user looking to switch, you probably have messages and contacts that you’ll need. The non-email features you need such as a calendar, notes, and tasks.End-to-end (E2E) encryption for truly private messages.

A safe jurisdiction that respects privacy.The ability to import messages and contacts from Gmail.Here are the main things we were looking for. So we looked for several characteristics that would give most of the benefits of Gmail, but add better privacy. There isn’t an email service that serves as an exact replacement for Gmail. Things to look for in a Gmail alternative

If privacy is important to you, you should definitely be looking for an alternative to Gmail.

Google’s entire business model revolves around collecting as much private information on users as possible in order to benefit advertisers and other third parties. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to see how much personal data Gmail collects. In this recent Forbes article about Google’s new Gmail privacy disclosure, Andy Yen CEO of ProtonMail, stated that, Google has long had a reputation for sucking up a lot of personal data about its users. However, if you are concerned with protecting your online privacy, using Gmail could be a problem. It has millions of users who daily take advantage of its features and popularity. Gmail is an incredibly popular email service.

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