Believe it or not, email is still a very popular means of communication. There are more than 2.5 billion email users worldwide sending 122,500,453,020 emails every hour and chances are you’re one of them.

Edward Snowden showed us that our most private (or so we thought) communications are not safe from prying eyes. And now the FBI is trying to make Apple bypass its own encryption, potentially creating a backdoor into millions of devices.

Apart from unchecked government surveillance, you may also want to safeguard your email for two other reasons: service providers like Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft scanning your email content so that they can serve you more targeted advertising, and hackers accessing or intercepting your email to steal financial and other information.

We’ve shared eight apps that let you encrypt your iPhone data and how to encrypt your Android smartphone, now we share with you five secure email services to protect yourself against snooping.

When considering a secure email service, pay attention to the following: where (in what country) is the data stored; does the service offer end-to-end encryption and zero access; ease of access (across multiple devices through web, desktop and mobile apps); cost and level of service, e.g. storage space, number of email addresses, et cetera.

ProtonMail

Created in 2014, ProtonMail was invite-only until yesterday. On Thursday, Proton Technologies AG, the Swiss company behind ProtonMail, launched its end-to-end encrypted email service out of beta, open sourced its code, and rolled out iOS and Android apps at the same time.

ProtonMail makes use of end-to-end encryption, meaning emails and all associated data are transmitted in encrypted format between the sender, Proton’s servers, and the receiver. The company also promises zero access to user data and makes use of a segregated authentication and decryption system where users effectively have two passwords: one to log into the service and a second password to decrypt their email. What’s important is that the decryption password is never sent to Proton, meaning the user is the only one with the ability to decrypt email.

ProtonMail offers a free account with 500MB of storage, one email address, up to 150 messages per day, 20 labels to organize mail, and limited support. If you need more storage, a custom domain and additional email addresses, more labels, and a higher level of support, you can opt for one of ProtonMail’s new paid plans.

Tutanota

Based in Germany, Tutanota offers free secure email with end-to-end encryption for email content, subject, attachments, and contacts. Tutanota also lets non-users securely respond to your email and you have the option to send unencrypted mail if you choose to do so (but why would you?).

A free account gets you 1GB of storage and one email address on the Tutanota domain. Or you can upgrade to a Premium account for €1 per month and get five aliases and use your own domain. You can access Tutanota on the web or use the iOS or Android app.

Storage is limited at 1GB, but the company is working on adding additional storage plans starting at €2 per month for 10GB.

Posteo.de

Also based in Germany, Posteo.de offers users an open source, secure email account with 2GB of storage and two aliases for €1 per month. Posteo.de does not offer mobile apps but supports POP3 and IMAP so email can be synchronised with all smartphones, tablets and PCs.

Along with comprehensive encryption, Posteo.de offers two-factor authentication on all devices safeguarding your account from unauthorized access even if your password is cracked. Sign up is anonymous and you can even pay anonymously via bank transfer, cash or PayPal.

Kolab Now

Like ProtonMail, Kolab Now is an open-source secure email service hosted in Switzerland. Since Kolab Now is aimed more at small to medium businesses, it also offers a suite of collaboration tools, including contacts management, tasks and more taking, and scheduling and calendaring. There’s no free option, but an individual account can be had for $4.70 per month, including a 30-day trial.

There are no dedicated mobile apps, but in addition to web access Kolab Now supports IMAP so can be integrated across devices, including smartphones, tablets, and PCs.

Countermail

Despite its 1998-ish website, Countermail has a compelling secure email offer. Along with end-to-end encryption, Countermail uses OpenPGP’s encryption protocol with 4096 keys to protect user data. According to the company’s website, there is no known method which will allow a person or group to break OpenPGP’s encryption by cryptographic or computational means, despite rumors to the contrary.

An additional layer of security can be added by purchasing a physical USB key making it impossible to login without your USB key inserted into the USB-port.

Countermail is available for Windows, OS X, and Linux and while there’re no mobile apps, it supports IMAP so you can use your own email client across a range of devices. Plans start at $6.33 per month (payable upfront for three months) and you can get support for your own domain and extra storage for a one-time fee.

Image credit: geralt, Pixabay