ProtonMail gives users complete data ownership

Web Log: Swiss-based email service could attract Gmail users who value their privacy

Oh, okay. Google gave Gmail app developers the ability to read users' emails. We already know that Gmail inboxes are scanned by non-humans for targeted advertising but this is different: according to the Wall Street Journal some app developers let their employees read actual emails in order to train or further develop their app.

If you're tired of hoping that big tech companies won't try to monetise your data in some shape or form perhaps it's time to switch to a service that focuses on privacy and encryption. ProtonMail's encryption, according to Andy Yen who founded this webmail service while working at CERN, "ensures that our users have complete ownership of their data. We don't have the ability to read it or sell it, even if we wanted to."

Forget Swiss bank account, it might be time to consider getting this Swiss-based email service. While ProtonMail is free, storage is limited to 500MB, which is not much these days. Upgrading to ProtonMail Plus gives you 5GB, your own domain and up to five aliases but this costs €48 per year so you have to be relatively serious about wanting true email privacy.