This scrambled text can only be unscrambled by your conversational partner. With E2EE, a message is turned into complete gibberish before it even leaves your computer and reaches your email provider. This is where End-to-End Encryption comes into play. Spooky!įor the privacy conscious, another type of encryption is required in order to protect against the consequences of a data request or technical vulnerability. And sometimes, encryption is simply undermined by incredibly resourced adversaries. With increasing regularity, legal processes, like subpoenas, have coerced email providers into handing over users’ emails. However, this is no longer a 100% assurance of your privacy. Ideally, the only people who can read the content of your email are you, your friends, and the email provider itself. This makes sure that the minute you press send from your inbox, the email should not be eavesdropped on by anyone between your and your friends’ email providers.

In the past, this was also called by its earlier protocol, SSL, or Secure Socket Layer, which TLS replaced. Most email providers use a protocol called TLS, or Transport Layer Security, to securely deliver email between the sender and recipient’s servers. Let’s dig a little further into how and why that might happen.

If you’re already curious about Proton Mail, then you are probably keenly aware that email communication can be spied upon. Android and iOS apps are also available for mobile, and those with a paid account can use the Proton Mail Bridge to check your email from Thunderbird, Apple Mail, or your desktop email client of choice. This guide takes you through how to safely and effectively use Proton Mail’s web app, which you access via your browser at. If you’ve never used PGP, or need a refresher on the fundamentals, have a look at one of EFF’s excellent explainers. If you’re already using a client like Mailvelope, Thunderbird, or Apple Mail with GPG Suite, you have a good basis for getting started. PGP is famously tricky to use, but through its design, Proton Mail simplifies things a great deal. Proton Mail uses PGP, Pretty Good Privacy, an encryption standard commonly used for encrypting the content of emails. This means that communication between anyone whose email is managed by Proton Mail can only be viewed by members of that party No outside parties, including Proton Mail itself, can view the content of any messages sent through the service. Proton Mail is a Switzerland-based email client that offers end-to-end encryption between its users by default.

Protonmail account