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Old 26 Feb 2017, 12:05 PM   #1
WheelDeal
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Advice on Choosing a Better E-Mail Provider

Hello, everyone -

I hope to migrate from my two Google accounts, one of which currently hosts my personal domain. I am willing to pay for any new service that's reliable, responsive, and offers a high-quality user experience. I realize FastMail is well-regarded, but it's based in Australia; I'd prefer to avoid the Five Eyes.

What other providers could you recommend?

Thank you,
Brian
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Old 26 Feb 2017, 12:45 PM   #2
sflorack
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Out of curiosity, what type of email business are you conducting that requires such privacy?
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Old 26 Feb 2017, 03:27 PM   #3
David
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You might want to take a look at Runbox, Brian
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Old 26 Feb 2017, 05:09 PM   #4
Mouse45
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Runbox

I have been a Runbox user for some years and I appreciate the privacy with no annoying adverts etc.
It is very reliable although sometimes a little slow responding (might be a security routine) On the whole I am very satisfied with it.
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Old 26 Feb 2017, 10:25 PM   #5
TenFour
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Proton Mail seems to be well regarded if you want to go all the way to encryption. Personally, I have zero confidence that my email won't be vacuumed up by some national security apparatus no matter where in the world it originates from, so unless you go encrypted it is likely to be scanned for key words or whatever it is they are looking for (bad jokes about your beloved political leader). As far as privacy from intrusive advertising it is possible to use an ad blocker on the web and to turn off much of the targeting via the dashboard in Google and Microsoft accounts. I find that dramatically lowers the level of targeted advertising, but instead I see even worse scammy ads for things like health cures for various parts of my body. I haven't yet found a good ad blocker for my Android phone that doesn't make it unusable.
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Old 27 Feb 2017, 12:46 AM   #6
sflorack
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TenFour View Post
I haven't yet found a good ad blocker for my Android phone that doesn't make it unusable.
I use AdGuard. Seems to do a decent job without breaking sites.
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Old 27 Feb 2017, 06:28 AM   #7
WheelDeal
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Thanks for the helpful suggestions so far.

Quote:
Originally Posted by sflorack View Post
Out of curiosity, what type of email business are you conducting that requires such privacy?
I'm essentially an average user. I simply don't like Google's business model, and I'm disgusted with government surveillance run amok. I realize the notion of e-mail security is almost an oxymoron--even with encryption--but it seems certain options are probably less bad than others.

Quote:
Originally Posted by David View Post
You might want to take a look at Runbox, Brian
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouse45 View Post
I have been a Runbox user for some years and I appreciate the privacy with no annoying adverts etc.
I haven't forgotten Runbox, but it's hard for me to justify a minimum $80 for 15 GB. I've also seen comments that suggest the service isn't perfect.

Quote:
Originally Posted by TenFour View Post
Proton Mail seems to be well regarded if you want to go all the way to encryption. Personally, I have zero confidence that my email won't be vacuumed up by some national security apparatus no matter where in the world it originates from, so unless you go encrypted it is likely to be scanned for key words or whatever it is they are looking for (bad jokes about your beloved political leader).
I agree, TenFour. Yet, as I understand it, encryption is useless in some situations, and it adds a layer of complexity for recipients. Ultimately, I think it would be more sensible for me to seek peace-of-mind and a good user experience.

What about Kolab Now? I've had trouble finding recent information about them; indeed, the feedback I've seen here is from 2014.

Best regards,
Brian

Last edited by WheelDeal : 27 Feb 2017 at 06:47 AM.
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Old 27 Feb 2017, 07:52 AM   #8
chickadee
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TenFour, you wrote, "I haven't yet found a good ad blocker for my Android phone that doesn't make it unusable." I suggest you check out the Brave browser, a free web browser for Android with a built-in ad blocker, in addition to tracking and security protection.

https://brave.com/

https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/31/br...in-on-android/
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Old 27 Feb 2017, 08:07 AM   #9
TenFour
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I tried Brave for awhile, and it is a good effort. The problem is the automatic syncing of bookmarks and passwords (for low security sites) is just too useful on Chrome. It of course is possible to use both Chrome and Brave, but then you defeat the purpose. I suppose less ad tracking might be better than fulltime tracking, but not really certain.
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Old 27 Feb 2017, 11:22 AM   #10
WheelDeal
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TenFour View Post
I tried Brave for awhile, and it is a good effort. The problem is the automatic syncing of bookmarks and passwords (for low security sites) is just too useful on Chrome. It of course is possible to use both Chrome and Brave, but then you defeat the purpose. I suppose less ad tracking might be better than fulltime tracking, but not really certain.
Hi, TenFour -

Have you tried Ghostery for Android? It's probably worth a look, although I'm not sure it allows syncing.

Best regards,
Brian
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Old 27 Feb 2017, 08:00 PM   #11
Mr Hellish
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WheelDeal View Post
Hello, everyone -

I hope to migrate from my two Google accounts, one of which currently hosts my personal domain. I am willing to pay for any new service that's reliable, responsive, and offers a high-quality user experience. I realize FastMail is well-regarded, but it's based in Australia; I'd prefer to avoid the Five Eyes.

What other providers could you recommend?

Thank you,
Brian
Have you checked out StartMail? The servers of Startmail are based in the Netherlands so it's a lot safer than Australia. I've been using Startmail for over a year and I'm very satisfied with the one-click PGP encryption that even a N00b like me can use without a problem . I also like the feature that allows you to make permanent and temporary aliases that feed into your main account. It's worth checking out!
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Old 28 Feb 2017, 12:12 PM   #12
WheelDeal
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Hellish View Post
Have you checked out StartMail? The servers of Startmail are based in the Netherlands so it's a lot safer than Australia. I've been using Startmail for over a year and I'm very satisfied with the one-click PGP encryption that even a N00b like me can use without a problem. . . .
Hello, Mr. Hellish -

No, I hadn't heard of StartMail--thanks for the recommendation!

Responding to PC Magazine's review, a StartMail user wrote,

Quote:
. . . I signed up because I heard that startmail was a good gmail alternative with encryption. Let's get that straight, startmail does not even have the feature set of gmail back when it launched in the early 2000's . . .The mail filters are tedious to use and for the most part do not work. Also, they claim to have spam filtering - well in my experience if it exists, it works poorly at best. . . .
Have you encountered any of these complications?

Thanks,
Brian
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Old 1 Mar 2017, 08:21 AM   #13
beeboy
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Startmail is bit of a joke around here. Not because of what it is now (I don't know anything about it).

It had a lot of hype and advertisement in its early days. It was going to revolutionize email ....yadda ...yadda.

It was "coming soon" for ages and ages. So long that people lost interest. When it finally did open there was no fanfare or email revelations that I was aware of.
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Old 2 Mar 2017, 03:21 AM   #14
WheelDeal
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Quote:
Originally Posted by beeboy View Post
Startmail is bit of a joke around here. . . . It was going to revolutionize email ....yadda ...yadda.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jslaterb View Post
It looks to me like Mr Hellish either works for Startmail or is promoting them. Signs up a few days ago and the first post is about how great Startmail is. Then he disappears. . . .
Thank you for the warnings.

I'm gravitating toward either Kolab Now or FastMail. (Yes, I know FastMail is based in Australia and New York.) Many privacy advocates praised Kolab in years past, but I've found little recent information about them. Their site isn't well-organized and seems to lack important information, and I've read a comment suggesting that the service's spam filtering may not be up to par. Still, I haven't got sufficient feedback to make an informed choice.

Of course, FastMail has its share of complaints, some of which are pertinent to my situation. I'll save FM-related queries for the other thread.

Thanks again,
Brian
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Old 12 Mar 2017, 07:58 AM   #15
WheelDeal
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WheelDeal View Post
I haven't forgotten Runbox, but it's hard for me to justify a minimum $80 [per year] for 15 GB. I've also seen comments that suggest the service isn't perfect.
I was wrong: Kolab Now would be approximately $200 per year for 15 GB. Yikes--Runbox seems positively cheap in comparison!
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