# ProtonMail is a good alternative?



## nestux (Mar 27, 2017)

Hello,

Few years ago I was reading about the email service founded at the CERN, I created an account but I never really use it.

They claim is very secure, encrypted and the servers are located in Switzerland (outside of US and EU jurisdiction) something like Lavabit I think...

Anyone has tried this? Last week I was paranoid about the privacy and remember ProtonMail as alternative to my email account.

Any feedback?


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## -Snake- (Mar 27, 2017)

I have used proton mail, it is very good and it is the e-mail services that I trust the most in terms of privacy. However, absolute security/privacy in computer science does not exist, although that is no excuse for not taking security measures.


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## nestux (Mar 27, 2017)

-Snake- said:


> I have used proton mail, it is very good and it is the e-mail services that I trust the most in terms of privacy. However, absolute security/privacy in computer science does not exist, although that is no excuse for not taking security measures.



You are right, absolute security does not exist, and maybe the only case to be sure about this is to host the service in our own server. But still, have a security measures is always good.


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## -Snake- (Mar 27, 2017)

nestux said:


> You are right, absolute security does not exist, and maybe the only case to be sure about this is to host the service in our own server. But still, have a security measures is always good.



And neither storing it on your own server would be 100% safe, although in principle you would have complete control over the service.


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## winkoe (Apr 17, 2017)

Protonmail is only configured for browser use, not for mail programs like Thunderbird.
For full security you have to agree on a password with your correspondent.
If you can induce your prime correspondents to use Protonmail as well, you will have a perfect setup.


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## abishai (Apr 17, 2017)

nestux said:


> Last week I was paranoid about the privacy and remember ProtonMail as alternative to my email account.


Protonmail is not an option if you paranoid about the privacy

1. XSS https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7850953
2. Service *can* obviously send you special scripts if asked.


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## getopt (Apr 17, 2017)

abishai said:


> Protonmail is not an option if you paranoid about the privacy
> 
> 1. XSS https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7850953
> 2. Service *can* obviously send you special scripts if asked.



If you dig out an issue that has been raised "1047 days ago" you have the obligation to research what happened meantime.

https://protonmail.com/blog/update-reported-xss-issue/

To make clear what I mean: If you today found that FreeBSD had an issue 2014 with kmem. Can you post today that FreeBSD is not an option?


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## gofer_touch (Jun 27, 2018)

Is anyone aware as to whether the protonmail bridge works under FreeBSD? They appear to have a Linux bridge that is in beta. This is really the only thing keeping me from switching all of my mail over. I like the convenience of a client (as well as the ability to read mails offline).


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## romanaOne (Jun 28, 2018)

I like proton as well.  Don't know about the privacy/security but I've been using it about a year and I really like the lack of advertising, tracking, and social media BS.


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