Thinking of swapping from Gmail to Protonmail cause Google is evil and I want to know if there’s anything I should know going into the switch
I use it. It's fine but the free tier doesn't have IMAP/SMTP support and doesn't let you change the automatic signature "Sent from Protonmail Mobile" in the mobile app (you can manually erase it though).
What is IMAP/SMTP? If I'm not a power user should I have to worry about it?
It's a protocol that lets you use your email account with any arbitrary email client program that implements it, some examples are Mozilla Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook, and the Mail app on iOS. If you don't use any of these and mainly do your emailing through a web browser or service-specific mobile app, it shouldn't matter.
it's better than gmail, but it's not completely secure, and very likely middlemanned by the 5 eyes. I remember hearing somewhere that someone who sent all their organization info over proton somehow ended up with the feds having all their info, even though they never shared it anywhere else. They also support HK protesters, which is an oof.
It's an email service, and they can most likely read your email. If you're concerned about that, use pgp. If you just care about being less spied on than with google, it'll be fine.
I mean, was it all sent in-between protonmail accounts and never sent to other providers? My understanding (via Privacy and OSINT Podcast with Michael Bazzell) is that protonmail's "encryption" only works within-network; an email sent from protonmail to a gmail wouldn't have any additional security over simply sending it from a gmail. Agreed on PGP though. Best not to rely solely on the service you're using for confidentiality.
It was notable because it was protonmail - protonmail. Encryption obviously doesn't work between email providers. However, there isn't any easy way for a service to implement completely encrypted email, with it being completely unreadable to them.
Mail servers need certain parts of the email to be unencrypted, and automatic encryption where your provider stores your keys for you can have some issues.
You can pay for their cheapest tier and get custom domains, then register a domain in AWS and create your own private secure email, or pay for extra domains and make burner email accounts anytime you want.
I use it for my business card (ew) email bc of the @pm.me. The privacy conscious people on hacker news use fastmail which is self hosted but like a lot of effort for probably little gain if you're just a civillian
Been using it for ~6 months now. Very happy with it, especially when combined with something like anonaddy.
I recommend it. Been using it for almost 3, maybe 4 years now? I also use their VPN service and don't really have any major red flags.
The only real issue I have is the fact that it's not the most friendly when it comes to collaborating with other email services. at the moment I use proton for my software dev portfolio mainly, and have my work/student/personal emails set up thru the Outlook 2019 app, not by choice but because of technical limitations. Last I checked, in order to get proton to play nice with that, you need an extra application (that you get from their paid tier) to run in the background of your PC at all times to get it to work, and even that's finnicky at times. If you don't mind being limited to their webapp/mobile app, it's fine tho.
