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Fastmail offers EU data region

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Re: Fastmail offers EU data region

#51

Post by petcat »

vzaliva wrote: post #44
lschueller wrote: post #39

If what you need is a guarantee that your data remains only in the EU, we don’t have that, and we’d rather tell you directly than let you assume otherwise. Is there an alternative that really keeps data in the EU? (And not only in the sense it serves a sales promotion)

I do not know any EU-only, but ProtonMail is in Switzerland.

Proton is leaving Switzerland because of surveillance and privacy issues.

> Because of legal uncertainty around Swiss government proposals to introduce mass surveillance — proposals that have been outlawed in the EU — Proton is moving most of its physical infrastructure out of Switzerland.

https://proton.me/blog/lumo-ai

They are moving to Germany, but will quickly find that they are going to face the same surveillance and privacy issues since the EU is in the process of negotiating a data sharing agreement under the US Cloud Act.

https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-a...

Re: Fastmail offers EU data region

#53

Post by KingOfCoders »

crossroadsguy wrote: post #38
KingOfCoders wrote: post #26

We offer EU data centers for customers that want their emails to stay in the EU but "Resilient replicas of your data will live in the US" ?

The US data replicas will be resilient, and when the FBI asks your data to reveal things about itself, your data will refuse to reveal anything about itself in the characteristic resilient manner. That's why the mention of "resilient".

How is that possible if the OS/drive/vault is backdoored? Could you elaborate?

I think "resilient" just means "backup copy" and I do think (IANAL) it is illegal to destroy emails when asked for them in the US.

Or was your comment ironic? Sorry, German, irony impaired.

Re: Fastmail offers EU data region

#54

Post by tene80i »

crossroadsguy wrote: post #35

I have never understood their 50+10 GB storage as the starting plan. Anyone storing a lot of emails, please don't come at me screaming, but know that not everyone keeps every email and every attachment ever received right there in that email account (especially the attachments). For me, email is just communication i.e timed information, not data storage, except for very personal emails, and very very rare, some non-p…

You mean why isn’t there a cheaper tier than $5/mo? Not much to be gained by offering it, I would think.

Re: Fastmail offers EU data region

#55

Post by lschueller »

atmosx wrote: post #50
lschueller wrote: post #39

If what you need is a guarantee that your data remains only in the EU, we don’t have that, and we’d rather tell you directly than let you assume otherwise. Is there an alternative that really keeps data in the EU? (And not only in the sense it serves a sales promotion)

Depends on the definition and your threat model but to make a very large story short; it’s email, others have copies (your gmail friends?). Metadata is public by default the body can be encrypted and encrypted at rest (comes with many limitations) and that’s the highest level of security you can realistically achieve. If that works fine if not, use another method of comm. Email wasn’t designed to be secure.

Thank you. Sure. In Europe the "euro stack" approach becomes more and more relevant. So, the issue is more a compliance topic in the way of making use of service provides, who are best-case "eu-headquartered", but at least with a guarantee that processing on my side stays within the european realm. Doesn't mean very little in a technical understanding of security, I agree.

Re: Fastmail offers EU data region

#57

Post by rzerowan »

Seeing a lot of detail in the comments about the CLOUD act which applies as they(fastmail) themselves have an equivalent that was signed between USgov and Australia.

The more concerning issue as far as Australian based tech is The Assistance and Access Act 2018 which

"...permits government enforcement agencies to force businesses to hand over user info and data even though it’s protected by cryptography.

If firms don’t have the power to intercept encrypted data for authorities, they will be forced to create tools to allow law enforcement or government to have access to their users’ data."

As far as i know this has not been challenged or walked back and with the rise of ChatControl like laws doesnt seem it will.

Re: Fastmail offers EU data region

#58

Post by egorfine »

Can't wait to verify my age before reading emails!

In all seriousness though, what are the chances Fastmail won't require KYC at some point? I have sent them a support request with that question and got a non-answer.

PS: Am a paying customer for like a decade

Re: Fastmail offers EU data region

#59

Post by tamimio »

Does it matter much? From one side, you are still in the 14 eyes countries (in fact, I would trust a Chinese server if i am living in the west and vice versa), on another side, emails as a protocol was never meant to be secure or private, so deal with it as that, if you are after private or secure communication, choose a protocol that provides that, adding more stuff to emails will only complicate it further plus giving false sense of privacy/security, gpg will leak meta data, receiver email server/client might expose you too, among many gaps, so just avoid it. Still, make sure your email spf dkim dmarc etc are set properly and carry on.

Re: Fastmail offers EU data region

#60

Post by linux2647 »

xnickb wrote: post #49
intothemild wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow they completely missed the ball on why people want reassurances that their data stays in the EU

I think they just know what they can and can't guarantee.

Agreed. I imagine they’ll announce an EU-only option later once they get more EU infrastructure in place
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