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Why ProtonMail is more secure than Gmail

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Re: Why ProtonMail is more secure than Gmail

#14
post #3

Very nice. One question though: how can we check if what they say is true? Is their client open-source? Also, would it be possible that if I open an email on an Android device, that Google still could read the email?

For the first question: https://github.com/ProtonMail/WebClient For the second, it is unlikely, spying on third party app is not in the ToS of android, and if google (or any big tech company, really) is caught doing something not in the ToS, it will cause a PR shitstorm.

I have a Proton Mail account since 2014, but i never really used it. I might give it a try again today.

Re: Why ProtonMail is more secure than Gmail

#15
The engineer in me loves the promised End-End encryption and all the cool stuff. But, the inconvenience of "unable to search contents of emails" is a deal breaker towards encrypted email for me. My primary concern was Google/Microsoft scraping my emails to build a profile of me. My emails could give away very personal information that I do not want to be used for advertising.

My money finally went to Fastmail. Excellent email service - just works and doesn't try to be super smart and take over the world.

Re: Why ProtonMail is more secure than Gmail

#18

The engineer in me loves the promised End-End encryption and all the cool stuff. But, the inconvenience of "unable to search contents of emails" is a deal breaker towards encrypted email for me. My primary concern was Google/Microsoft scraping my emails to build a profile of me. My emails could give away very personal information that I do not want to be used for advertising. My money finally went to Fastmail. Excell…

Didn't Google stop scanning Gmail for ads targeting?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/23/technology/gmail-ads.html

Re: Why ProtonMail is more secure than Gmail

#19
Oh, wow. This makes me want to switch our work email away from Protonmail...

* If you are not comfortable giving Google unlimited access to all of your intimate communications*

Who would? But this is a sleight-of-hand where we somehow got from "google targets advertisement based on email content" all the way to "everyone working at google reads your email, and they all make fun of what you did last night".

By those standards, Google also reads everything on protonmail. At least if you use Chrome.

Besides, there are other factors than just encryption standards that impact security. The largest of all is the organisation you're trusting.

Google is obviously far ahead in terms of expertise and resources. They also have far more to lose, are probably better set up to protect against rogue insiders, and are impossible to compromise with money. OTOH, they're subject to FISA courts and whatnot.

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