An Alternative to Gmail

Over the years, many of us opened a free, personal email account on Gmail, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, etc, for communicating with friends and family. However, much has changed from Google’s (the owner and operator of Gmail) humble do no evil beginnings.

As discussed in my previous post, Time to End Your Relationship with Big Tech, big tech companies build a profile about us based on all the information we freely provide them, and then sell our profile to the highest bidder. What a better way to get detailed information and build a user profile than by scanning the user’s email.

Have you ever wondered why you start seeing ads for swimsuits, suggestions for a place to stay, and rental car options shortly after emailing your friend to plan a vacation to Florida? As we start to peer deeper into the operations of big tech, the magic of seeing such timely ads is revealed: WE are the product! This is not to say some of these recommendations are not useful, but did you realize you were granting big tech companies the right to collect and sell your personal information when you emailed your friend? Did you read the Terms of Service Agreement? All the way to the end?

For those of you looking to continue using a free email service, and want to keep your private communications…Well, private…I recommend switching to ProtonMail. ProtonMail is open source, offers secure end-to-end encryption, and zero-access encryption, meaning your emails are stored securely.

ProtonMail offers a free tier, which should suffice for most users. However, for those with a larger inbox, you will want to consider upgrading to one of their reasonably priced paid plans. The great thing is the security and privacy offered by ProtonMail is the same for all plans, regardless if they are a paid or free plan.

For additional information about ProtonMail, I recommend reading their easy to understand post titled, Best Gmail alternative for privacy and security, which provides greater detail as to the features they offer, and why you should switch from your current email provider to ProtonMail.

Happy secure emailing!