Emails
Email was never designed to be private: by default, messages travel and rest in ways your provider (and sometimes others) can read. You can't make email perfectly private, but you can pick providers that don't monetise your inbox, add encryption where it matters, and reduce the trail you leave behind. These guides focus on realistic steps that measurably lower your exposure. As of July 2026, none of them require you to be technical.
Tools compared
Can your provider read what's in your inbox?
- GmailVisitmail.google.com
Free because Google's systems process your mail; messages sit on Google's servers in a form Google can read.
- Outlook / HotmailVisitoutlook.com
Microsoft holds readable copies of your mail. Convenient, but not private by design.
- Yahoo Mail
Readable at rest and monetised through data. A poor choice for anything sensitive.
- Any provider + OpenPGP
Adding PGP encrypts the body between correspondents, but setup is fiddly and metadata (subject, sender, recipient) still leaks.
- Proton MailVisitproton.me
Zero-access encryption means Proton itself can't read your stored mail; end-to-end encrypted to other Proton users and via PGP. Swiss-based.
- Tuta (Tutanota)Visittuta.com
German end-to-end encrypted mail and calendar that encrypts subject lines too, using its own scheme rather than PGP.
- Mailbox.org / PosteoVisitmailbox.org
Privacy-focused German providers with PGP support, no ads, and encryption-at-rest options.
Verified July 2026 and not exhaustive. “Readable by the provider” means the content can, in principle, be scanned or handed over. We take no money from any product listed here; where a tool sits can change, so check its current documentation.
Guides
- Choose an email provider that doesn't read your mail How privacy-respecting email providers actually work, what 'encrypted email' really means, and how to move to Proton Mail, Tuta, Mailbox.org, or Posteo without losing old mail.
- Use email aliases to compartmentalise your life How email aliases limit spam and breach damage, a look at Apple Hide My Email, Proton Pass, SimpleLogin, Firefox Relay, and addy.io, and a practical setup for banking, newsletters, and sign-ups.
- Stop email trackers and hidden read-receipts How tracking pixels tell marketers when and where you open mail, and the exact settings in Gmail, Apple Mail, Outlook, and Proton Mail that switch them off.