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I think Fastmail is more honest - if you're using email and communicating with 90% of the rest of the world that uses gmail then the 'privacy' provided by proto

I think Fastmail is more honest - if you're using email and communicating with 90% of the rest of the world that uses gmail then the 'privacy' provided by proton mail is irrelevant. They're also based in [edit: I thought Protonmail was Russian based, but they're not]. I think that's probably worse from a country level. Encrypted email is a bad way to do private communication - services that pretend otherwise set off alarms for me. The main advantage of Fastmail vs. Google is that it's a separate service focused on providing you a good experience with custom domain support. The business model is not ad driven so incentives are more aligned and it lets you leave Google services. The privacy people's faith in proton is misplaced (imo).

cherrycherry98 5y ago
Who's based in Russia? Fastmail seems to be Aussie/American and Protonmail is Swiss.
- fossuser 5y ago
  Ah you're right - not sure why I thought that Protonmail was Russian, but they're not.
allarm 5y ago
> They're also based in Russia? No, they’re based in Australia. They’ve been blocked in Russia recently though.
- gunapologist99 5y ago
  Protonmail is Swiss, not AU. Fastmail is Australian.
cge 5y ago
The major point of Protonmail, I think, is the no-access encrypted storage, not E2E-encrypted transit, which it does have, but only in limited and, as you point out, problematic circumstances. If your concern is with state-level actors with the ability to do mass spying on emails in transit and collection from many different providers, then no, Protonmail won't be that useful. If your concern is with someone getting access to your email archive, possibly years after the emails have been sent, then Protonmail does offer something: even if its own data storage is compromised, your emails should be secure. I suspect the latter is actually a much more common problem than the former, as we've seen with data ransoming lately. Unfortunately, Protonmail's implementation is rather clunky. I actually would consider using a self-hosted system that did something similar: get clear-text emails, but immediately encrypt them with a key that the server doesn't have the private key for, and still allow searching and notifications in some way.
- fossuser 5y ago
  Thanks - I think this is a good counter argument. My personal approach is to treat email as public communication and to delete archives aggressively. I recognize that this isn't something most people do.
tionis 5y ago
Well if you want custom domain support and reliable mail, I can suggest purelymail, very cheap, only mail, reliable non bloat service. I switched from protonmail because I like using native mail clients and not paying as much.
mackrevinack 5y ago
i would have gone with fastmail if there was a free tier. ive been paying for protonmail for years now even though i don't need any of the premium features, but if there ever comes a year where i cant pay for whatever reason, its nice knowing that my email still work as normal

cherrycherry98 5y ago

Who's based in Russia? Fastmail seems to be Aussie/American and Protonmail is Swiss.

fossuser 5y ago
Ah you're right - not sure why I thought that Protonmail was Russian, but they're not.

allarm 5y ago

> They're also based in Russia? No, they’re based in Australia. They’ve been blocked in Russia recently though.

gunapologist99 5y ago
Protonmail is Swiss, not AU. Fastmail is Australian.

cge 5y ago

The major point of Protonmail, I think, is the no-access encrypted storage, not E2E-encrypted transit, which it does have, but only in limited and, as you point out, problematic circumstances. If your concern is with state-level actors with the ability to do mass spying on emails in transit and collection from many different providers, then no, Protonmail won't be that useful. If your concern is with someone getting access to your email archive, possibly years after the emails have been sent, then Protonmail does offer something: even if its own data storage is compromised, your emails should be secure. I suspect the latter is actually a much more common problem than the former, as we've seen with data ransoming lately. Unfortunately, Protonmail's implementation is rather clunky. I actually would consider using a self-hosted system that did something similar: get clear-text emails, but immediately encrypt them with a key that the server doesn't have the private key for, and still allow searching and notifications in some way.

fossuser 5y ago
Thanks - I think this is a good counter argument. My personal approach is to treat email as public communication and to delete archives aggressively. I recognize that this isn't something most people do.

tionis 5y ago

Well if you want custom domain support and reliable mail, I can suggest purelymail, very cheap, only mail, reliable non bloat service. I switched from protonmail because I like using native mail clients and not paying as much.

mackrevinack 5y ago

i would have gone with fastmail if there was a free tier. ive been paying for protonmail for years now even though i don't need any of the premium features, but if there ever comes a year where i cant pay for whatever reason, its nice knowing that my email still work as normal