Alternative Email App: ProtonMail

[Alwyn]

I use my iCloud account for private/social email and gmail for online shopping etc. I have read about a Swiss company called Proton. I try to deny use of cookies to access my data. I would be interested to hear members’ views on Proton as I am thinking of replacing gmail with Proton’s equivalent.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

If you would like very private/secure e-mail, there are two sources that are excellent, and both offer free accounts:

Proton Mail
https://protonmail.com
(encrypted, based in Switzerland)

Tutanota
http://tutanota.com
(very secure encrypted e-mail, based in Germany)

"ProtonMail vs. Tutanota: Which Is the Best Secure Email Provider?”
https://www.howtogeek.com/718159/protonmail-vs.-tutanota-which-is-the-best-secure-email-provider/

Have a look at this article from Restore Privacy, a respected Web site that promotes safe Internet tools:
https://restoreprivacy.com/email/secure/

 

[Alwyn]

If you would like very private/secure e-mail, there are two sources that are excellent, and both offer free accounts:

Proton Mail
Proton Mail — Get a private, secure, and encrypted email
(encrypted, based in Switzerland)

Tutanota
Secure email: Tutanota free encrypted email.
(very secure encrypted e-mail, based in Germany)

"ProtonMail vs. Tutanota: Which Is the Best Secure Email Provider?”
ProtonMail vs. Tutanota: Which Is the Best Secure Email Provider?

Have a look at this article from Restore Privacy, a respected Web site that promotes safe Internet tools:
10 Best Private and Secure Email Services for 2023

Thanks Randy.

 

[Rod]

Worth having a look at are Apple's own settings for Encrypted email. Sign or encrypt emails in Mail on Mac

What you seem to be describing in your post is that you use iCloud for private email and your gmail account as an ID for online shopping.
You could certainly use the encrypted mail options for selected email with your iCloud address but my experience is that you will only use it for specific rather than general communication because that would mean creating certificates for everyone and they creating certificates for you.

There is no doubt that having a seperate, disposable email address for online shopping is a good idea.

 

[IWT]

If you have Apple Cloud+, in other words if you purchase extra storage space starting at 79 pence/month, you are then entitled as many hidden email addresses as you desire.

This is particularly useful for online shopping or for subscribing to magazines or the like. These hidden email addresses are linked to your Apple account and you will see them in your Mail account.

See here for more details:

What is Hide My Email? – Apple Support (UK)

Hide My Email lets you create unique, random email addresses to use with apps, websites and more so your personal email address can stay private. It's built in to Sign in with Apple and iCloud+.

support.apple.com

Ian

 

[Alwyn]

I set up a Proton e-mail address using an Apple strong password. I should have copied it although I couldn't read the whole password and it hasn't been saved in Passwords. There doesn't seem to be a forgotten password option. Is it possible to find it somewhere else? If not I'll have to set it up again with a different e-mail address.

 

[Rod]

Alwyn, if you allowed the Apple "Create Strong Password" function to create a password for you in eg Safari the password will be found in Key Chain > Passwords > Name of service eg Proton. Do a search in Key Chain from the search bar. Click on Show Password in the entry and enter your Admin Password.

 

[Rod]

Alwyn, IWT's suggestion is another example of what you can do to improve your security on a Mac and its a really good one.
Following his suggestion keeps everything "in house" so to speak and Apple allows (I think) up to 6 aliases at a time.
It removes the need to have a Google email completely, which is a security risk in itself and makes these aliases truely "disposeable" as I suggested in post #4. If you start getting spam via one alias you can just delete it.

 

[Alwyn]

Thanks. There is an option to add a Proton account to Mail but only by using Proton Mail Bridge at a monthly cost. So I think using aliases is a good idea.

 

[Alwyn]

If you have Apple Cloud+, in other words if you purchase extra storage space starting at 79 pence/month, you are then entitled as many hidden email addresses as you desire.

This is particularly useful for online shopping or for subscribing to magazines or the like. These hidden email addresses are linked to your Apple account and you will see them in your Mail account.

See here for more details:

What is Hide My Email? – Apple Support (UK)

Hide My Email lets you create unique, random email addresses to use with apps, websites and more so your personal email address can stay private. It's built in to Sign in with Apple and iCloud+.

support.apple.com

Ian

This may be a bridge too far but I would like personal/social e-mails to be kept separate. Is it possible to have Mail sort incoming and outgoing mail based on the alias used? As far as I can see smart mailboxes can only be based on the identity of somebody sending me an e-mail.

 

[Slydude]

If I am understanding what you want to do correctly I think the following might meet your needs. I have several email accounts including one that I haven't actively used in years. I have four or five different accounts all added to the Mac Mail program.

Each account could be directed to a different inbox in Mail. Mail rules can be used to further sort incoming emails but I find that recent versions of Mail don't seem to trigger as reliably as they used to in previous versions.

 

[MacInWin]

To pick up on Sly's excellent suggestion, create multiple mail accounts, one for each purpose. Set each one up in Mail. In the sidebar, they will each show up individually, with their own Inbox, Drafts, Sent, Junk, Trash, etc., folders.

The only complexity in this is that when you SEND an email, you will need to remember to choose the correct "FROM" address in the composition window. When you click on he From address, a window will open with all of the options that you have set up.

EDIT: Just to be clear, you would set up an email address, say [email protected], or whatever it is, for one purpose, then create a second address, say adoubleday@proton... for the second account, and abnerd@proton... for a third purpose, etc. the challenge would be that the three would all have the same sending server, and Mail may (I really don't know) decide to dump those addresses into one account because of the SEND server, despite different account names. You can try it.

If that fails, there are third party mail systems that allow multiple aliases. I use Pobox.com, which has a terrific spam filter and allows three aliases. Then Mail sorts them for me by the "To" address. Useful for those times when I need to provide an address but don't want it to be useful beyond the one time I need to get some activation set up. Pobox isn't free, but it is good. I have no financial interest in it, other than being a satisfied customer.

 

[pm-r]

The only complexity in this is that when you SEND an email, you will need to remember to choose the correct "FROM" address in the composition window. When you click on he From address, a window will open with all of the options that you have set up.

I don't know if Mail.app has changed from the Mavericks 10.9.5 versions I am using with multiple Mail accounts but I have very few problems with the proper From address being used, Maybe it's due to the preference > Composing Option:
Send new messages from: Account of selected mailbox
Is my choice.

If it ever does make a mistake it's very quick and easy to change and select the proper address from the pop-up options.




- Patrick
=======

 

[MacInWin]

I don't know if Mail.app has changed from the Mavericks 10.9.5 versions I am using with multiple Mail accounts but I have very few problems with the proper From address being used, Maybe it's due to the preference > Composing Option:
Send new messages from: Account of selected mailbox
Is my choice.

If it ever does make a mistake it's very quick and easy to change and select the proper address from the pop-up options.




- Patrick
=======

Patrick, that is now "Automatically select best account." "Best" doesn't always match, in my experience. Could be my system, but I manually select to make sure.

 

[ferrarr]

In my macOS Mail (version 16.0 (3731.400.51.1.1)) in Settings > Accounts > Server Settings, each of my email addresses has their own individual Outgoing Mail Account server setup.

 

[MacInWin]

In my macOS Mail (version 16.0 (3731.400.51.1.1)) in Settings > Accounts > Server Settings, each of my email addresses has their own individual Outgoing Mail Account server setup.

Yes, mine does, too. I have multiple email providers, so each has its own set of servers. But what I described is to have multiple addresses at Proton, all of which would use the same servers, just a different name.

The OP can go that way (multiple different providers), but you still have to designate which one you want to use for outbound messages. As I said, Mail's automatic "pick the best" didn't seem to be too useful, to me anyway.

 

[hempomatic]

I set up a Proton e-mail address using an Apple strong password. I should have copied it although I couldn't read the whole password and it hasn't been saved in Passwords. There doesn't seem to be a forgotten password option. Is it possible to find it somewhere else? If not I'll have to set it up again with a different e-mail address.

There IS actually a forgotten password option, but only if you set up a recovery email. I've been using Proton mail for a couple of years. I use the double authorization because ..... well, the same reason I use Tor, I'm paranoid.

 

[Alwyn]

Yes, mine does, too. I have multiple email providers, so each has its own set of servers. But what I described is to have multiple addresses at Proton, all of which would use the same servers, just a different name.

The OP can go that way (multiple different providers), but you still have to designate which one you want to use for outbound messages. As I said, Mail's automatic "pick the best" didn't seem to be too useful, to me anyway.

Okay I've set up folders for aliases each of which contains an Inbox and a Sent box. I've then set up a rule to say that if an e-mail 'From' an alias 'is equal to' the alias e-mail address, 'Copy to' designating the mailbox it's to go to. That works but the rule for e-mails 'To' an alias didn't yesterday, presumably because the incoming server only recognises the ultimate destination.

Today, 26 Jan, I've found one from eBay that has gone into its designated inbox!