Welcome • User Guide
ToS • Privacy • Canary
Donate • Bugs • License

©2025 Poal.co

563

I recently had to spin up an email account for something and tried ProtonMail. I liked the interface and the tools they have to quickly forward you mail out of Gmail. The price is negligible and if it will help reduce ads and spam then all the better.

But here's the question - is it kiked? I vaguely recall them handing over user info to the feds, but I don't remember the particulars. I'm certainly not doing anything illegal, but I'd like a service I pay for to put more resistance than tissue paper when the fuckbag feds come calling.

I recently had to spin up an email account for something and tried ProtonMail. I liked the interface and the tools they have to quickly forward you mail out of Gmail. The price is negligible and if it will help reduce ads and spam then all the better. But here's the question - is it kiked? I vaguely recall them handing over user info to the feds, but I don't remember the particulars. I'm certainly not doing anything illegal, but I'd like a service I pay for to put more resistance than tissue paper when the fuckbag feds come calling.

(post is archived)

[–] • 9 pts

They claimed they had a legal order from channels that were normally reserved for high crime, but it turned out the target was a climate activist. They've also turned over recovery information for someone believed to be supporting Catalonian insurgents, and the recovery email provider identified the person.

Proton claimed they didn't collect IP addresses but the fact that they turned them over says they do.

That being said, Proton claims they can't decode your mail without your password, but since they've lied about other things, what else did they lie about?

[–] • 1 pt

Do you have any recs for a good email provider? I'm about done with the gmail game. Security features are great, but I'd also like it be useable.

[–] • 0 pt

Any third party is a failure point, so...no.

At best, Proton says that they can't read your mail because it's stored encrypted, and we assume the passwords are hashed as well. I know that I've had to reset the password on mine because of forgetfulness, and the old mail is no longer accessible.

At best, you can obfuscate what you're doing, but if you have someone else in the chain they know at least part of the picture simply because they provide services.

[–] • 7 pts

When there’s a 3rd party involved, there’s always a risk.

[–] • 2 pts

I don't really have the infrastructure to self host my own email. I don't want to deal with all the security measures that would need be to put in place to stop the legions of pajeets and other shitbags that look for vulnerable net connected servers.

[–] • 3 pts

You can run a mail server on a low-end raspberry pi connected in your local network.

[–] • 2 pts

What kind of filtering software do you use? I work on my company's mail gateway almost everyday. There's so much bullshit that comes in that needs to be screened out. Viruses, scams, phishing etc. You can't just throw a mail server out these days right? Once the MX record is published isn't it a forgone conclusion you're going to be inundated with random horseshit?

[–] • 0 pt

It doesn't really take a lot to run your own mail server. There's free and open source software called virtualmin which sets up the tools you need for a web server as well as a mail server.

[–] • 2 pts

They came out of nowhere super fast and super well developed.

It screams honeypot.

That said…I still use them because I don’t know of a better one

[–] • 1 pt

Services like this can be worse than one because people basically flag themselves by using the service, as someone worth paying more attention to.

[–] • 1 pt

I heard they tattled on some people a while back.