The first 100% confidential Mailbox.

mister · 1 Jul 2015, 05:46 AM

http://www.own-mailbox.com/

Berenburger · 1 Jul 2015, 07:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mister

http://www.own-mailbox.com/

Interesting.

AHAP71 · 1 Jul 2015, 05:33 PM

Looks promising, subscribed to the newsletter.

zimmermanfan · 2 Jul 2015, 01:47 AM

These guys are really on the ball. It's so rare to find e-mail providers of any kind who think about the details, and then also manage to articulate the details to the users. Their faq is a good read.

They say "own-Mailbox allows you to easily send and receive confidential emails with an already existing email address". Obviously anyone can send a plaintext message to your outsourced email provider, and that's out of your hands.

The box uses pop3 or imap to get mail that goes to external accounts. Which means the outsourced email provider will know your IP address. They say you can install tor on the device (which obviously would make it possible to do pop3 and imap without exposing your IP address). However, tor is not included because it would make the product too complicated for normal users.

So some unanswered questions are:

1) is it even possible to install tor on the device? We know the vendor isn't standing in the way, but we don't know if there is some canned tor package that will "just work" on this thing, or if we have to cross-compile and hack it ourselves.

2) is the built-in pop3/imap client configurable to use tor, if we install tor?

3) GPG decryption happens on the device itself. What can be tricky is that there are a few different formats that senders will use:

* PGP/MIME
* inline PGP
* the bizarre format created by iPGMail clients (iphone)

It would be interesting to know how the mail server handles these formats.

4) Suppose a normal (generally dumb) user sends a message to a @hushmail.com address. Will this box be sophisticated enough to import the key from hush.com and use it automatically? For non-hushmail GPG recipients, will it pull the key off the pgp.mit.edu keyserver?

5) When the device creates a key pair, does it publish the public key somewhere? I suppose it must, in order to support own-mailbox users who e-mail each other.

6) If someone has a lousy nanny ISP that blocks port 25 in either direction, they offer some options to circumvent that problem. But what's not clear is how users will come to know that their ISP is a nanny ISP. Ideally, this device would send an email to the user telling them to consider changing ISPs. It's not clear whether the device is so automated and seamless that users won't even know that a circumvention is used, or if they will be in the loop.

Overall, I think it will be an impressive rollout. Hopefully it's successful.

FredOnline · 2 Jul 2015, 02:08 AM

Quote:

We are doing a Kickstarter campaign.

It will start in late June 2015 or July 2015.

Any one here sufficiently interested to put their hand in their pocket?

scryptmail · 2 Jul 2015, 01:12 PM

Anonymous self-hosted mailbox?
From Home?
Encrypted by https?

Nice design douh

zimmermanfan · 3 Jul 2015, 12:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scryptmail

Anonymous self-hosted mailbox?

They don't say it's anonymous.

Although it would be feasible to install mixmaster on it.

scryptmail · 3 Jul 2015, 02:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zimmermanfan

They don't say it's anonymous.

Although it would be feasible to install mixmaster on it.

My bad, you right confidential. Still will be hard enough keep confidentiality using home IP address.

digp · 3 Jul 2015, 06:36 AM

Is it secure email?

This could be useful for companies to have an in house solution who send secure email........

zimmermanfan · 17 Aug 2015, 03:54 AM

own-mailbox is not yet available, but there's competition -- apparently available now: Freedombox. It's debian-based, and includes VOIP as well as a mail server, and it has tor machinery in place. See freedomboxfoundation.org.

pjwalsh · 17 Aug 2015, 04:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zimmermanfan

own-mailbox is not yet available, but there's competition -- apparently available now: Freedombox. It's debian-based, and includes VOIP as well as a mail server, and it has tor machinery in place. See freedomboxfoundation.org.

What type of currently available devices can it run on? It's not clear from the website.

zimmermanfan · 18 Aug 2015, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pjwalsh

What type of currently available devices can it run on? It's not clear from the website.

Four devices:

https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Hardware

pjwalsh · 18 Aug 2015, 01:18 AM

Thanks!

Good index at debian.org for FreedomBox resources:

https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox

Berenburger · 6 Sep 2015, 06:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FredOnline

Quote:

We are doing a Kickstarter campaign.

It will start in late June 2015 or July 2015.

Any one here sufficiently interested to put their hand in their pocket?

I just backed Own-Mailbox, the first 100% confidential mailbox on Kickstarter.

David · 6 Sep 2015, 08:41 AM

These new providers seem to think they just have to mention Edward Snowden and everyone will then throw their money in the pot...

1 Jul 2015, 05:46 AM	#1
mister Essential Contributor Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 387	The first 100% confidential Mailbox. http://www.own-mailbox.com/

1 Jul 2015, 05:33 PM	#3
AHAP71 Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Ibiza Posts: 5	Looks promising, subscribed to the newsletter.

2 Jul 2015, 01:47 AM	#4
zimmermanfan Essential Contributor Join Date: Aug 2010 Posts: 200	These guys are really on the ball. It's so rare to find e-mail providers of any kind who think about the details, and then also manage to articulate the details to the users. Their faq is a good read. They say "own-Mailbox allows you to easily send and receive confidential emails with an already existing email address". Obviously anyone can send a plaintext message to your outsourced email provider, and that's out of your hands. The box uses pop3 or imap to get mail that goes to external accounts. Which means the outsourced email provider will know your IP address. They say you can install tor on the device (which obviously would make it possible to do pop3 and imap without exposing your IP address). However, tor is not included because it would make the product too complicated for normal users. So some unanswered questions are: 1) is it even possible to install tor on the device? We know the vendor isn't standing in the way, but we don't know if there is some canned tor package that will "just work" on this thing, or if we have to cross-compile and hack it ourselves. 2) is the built-in pop3/imap client configurable to use tor, if we install tor? 3) GPG decryption happens on the device itself. What can be tricky is that there are a few different formats that senders will use: * PGP/MIME * inline PGP * the bizarre format created by iPGMail clients (iphone) It would be interesting to know how the mail server handles these formats. 4) Suppose a normal (generally dumb) user sends a message to a @hushmail.com address. Will this box be sophisticated enough to import the key from hush.com and use it automatically? For non-hushmail GPG recipients, will it pull the key off the pgp.mit.edu keyserver? 5) When the device creates a key pair, does it publish the public key somewhere? I suppose it must, in order to support own-mailbox users who e-mail each other. 6) If someone has a lousy nanny ISP that blocks port 25 in either direction, they offer some options to circumvent that problem. But what's not clear is how users will come to know that their ISP is a nanny ISP. Ideally, this device would send an email to the user telling them to consider changing ISPs. It's not clear whether the device is so automated and seamless that users won't even know that a circumvention is used, or if they will be in the loop. Overall, I think it will be an impressive rollout. Hopefully it's successful.

2 Jul 2015, 02:08 AM	#5
FredOnline The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Manchester UK Posts: 2,616	Quote: We are doing a Kickstarter campaign. It will start in late June 2015 or July 2015. Any one here sufficiently interested to put their hand in their pocket?

2 Jul 2015, 01:12 PM	#6
scryptmail Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2014 Posts: 127 Representative of: Scryptmail.com	Anonymous self-hosted mailbox? From Home? Encrypted by https? Nice design douh

3 Jul 2015, 06:36 AM	#9
digp Master of the @ Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 1,326	Is it secure email? This could be useful for companies to have an in house solution who send secure email........

17 Aug 2015, 03:54 AM	#10
zimmermanfan Essential Contributor Join Date: Aug 2010 Posts: 200	own-mailbox is not yet available, but there's competition -- apparently available now: Freedombox. It's debian-based, and includes VOIP as well as a mail server, and it has tor machinery in place. See freedomboxfoundation.org.

18 Aug 2015, 01:18 AM	#13
pjwalsh Essential Contributor Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 312	Thanks! Good index at debian.org for FreedomBox resources: https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox

6 Sep 2015, 08:41 AM	#15
David Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Canada. Posts: 10,355	These new providers seem to think they just have to mention Edward Snowden and everyone will then throw their money in the pot...