Protonmail - Maybe not so private afterall

[Just Bill]

I noticed that one of the selling points made by Protonmail is that the don't ask for any information when opening an account. Well, that just isn't so. I opened an account to use for website registrations and low and behold they wanted my phone number. All accounts now closed.

Looks like they're just another Yahoo in sheeps clothing as far as I'm concerned.

[Dutchie007]

Originally Posted by Just Bill

I noticed that one of the selling points made by Protonmail is that the don't ask for any information when opening an account. Well, that just isn't so. I opened an account to use for website registrations and low and behold they wanted my phone number. All accounts now closed.

Looks like they're just another Yahoo in sheeps clothing as far as I'm concerned.

Besides that the Swiss government is also a real champ in snooping in on emails..!!
Few people seem to know that here.

https://www.thelocal.ch/20160925/swi...rveillance-law

There are only a few (big) free email providers left which do not want your cellphone number.
In Germany afaik they ALL want your number AND home address..!! NOT good imho. You can fake the address...but the cellphone number part is getting difficult.

My best bet would be on an Icelandic service...but they all seem to have economic problems...so who knows IF they are still arround in...lets say 5 years from now?

Dutchie.

[ProtonMail]

Most users don't need to enter a phone number (less than a percent). We implement IP bans when we detect abuse of our service. For instance, if a bot is attempting to create hundreds of accounts per hour, we ban that IP for a few hours. If you tried to sign up with an abused IP we will ask for a valid phone number, send a SMS verification code and proceed to the next step. We don't store this phone number and it's never used again. This most commonly happens when people try to signup using TOR with an unlucky circuit that has been abusing our signup flow around the same time.

As for the recent law that passed that doesn't affect us either:
https://protonmail.com/blog/swiss-surveillance-law/

[Dutchie007]

Originally Posted by ProtonMail

Most users don't need to enter a phone number (less than a percent). We implement IP bans when we detect abuse of our service. For instance, if a bot is attempting to create hundreds of accounts per hour, we ban that IP for a few hours. If you tried to sign up with an abused IP we will ask for a valid phone number, send a SMS verification code and proceed to the next step. We don't store this phone number and it's never used again. This most commonly happens when people try to signup using TOR with an unlucky circuit that has been abusing our signup flow around the same time.

As for the recent law that passed that doesn't affect us either:
https://protonmail.com/blog/swiss-surveillance-law/

well whatever...but how you cope with this then:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onyx_(interception_system)

Most users don't need to enter a phone number (less than a percent).

??? I dont get that. Could you explian that please? So certain users must give their phone number and others dont? Thats odd....



D

[17pm]

Originally Posted by Dutchie007

Most users don't need to enter a phone number (less than a percent).

??? I dont get that. Could you explian that please? So certain users must give their phone number and others dont? Thats odd....



D

Did you read his post? He explained in which situations a phone number may be required.