With the sheer amount of personal information in your email account, people are now starting to realise that it may not be a good idea to allow Google access to all this data. Remember Google’s business model is based on monetising the data it gathers from users. This concern also covers other email providers like Yahoo and Microsoft Outlook.
Who should I move to?
There is privacy based email providers that do not read your emails and also offer encrypted emails service and other features you would expect including a calendar and contacts. They do not need you to disclose personal information to create your account. They offer free and paid accounts and you can still send email to other people who use Google, Yahoo or Outlook etc.
The two most popular privacy based email providers are ProtonMail and Tutanota. Both offer free, paid service and encrypted email as well as calendar and contact features. I have tested both (free option) and I was impressed with the ease of use and functionality.
I would personally recommend Tutanota as they need NO personal information to sign up for an email account and are backed by the strongest European privacy laws as they are based in Germany. Their email software is open source and they do not show any advertising on your email account. Tutanota is derived from Latin and contains the words “tuta” and “nota” which means “secure message”. There is a mobile app that is available on Google Play, Apple store and F-Droid.
This is the link to access their website: Secure email: Tutanota free encrypted email.
Remember when you create an email address DO NOT use your real name.
How do I migrate my emails over to Tutanota?
Although this may sound daunting to achieve it is not that difficult. Keep your original email account (Google Mail) and sort through your emails and forward all the emails you wish to keep to your Tutanota account. Then delete these from your original account. Copy all your contact information from your original account and put these into the Tutanota contact page.
Send one email from your original account to everyone you wish to inform that you are now using Tutanota (not to businesses). In the email message inform them that you are now only using your Tutanota account and ask them to confirm receipt of this email. When you receive replies in your Tutanota account then just delete these people from your original contact page. As soon as everyone has updated their contact information with your new Tutanota email address then you can delete your original account.
I would suggest you DO NOT give your Tutanota email address to any business as your Tutanota email address may be sold by these businesses and your inbox will be full of spam email. Instead read my blog article on How Do I Protect My Main Email Account? This article will explain how to use proxy email accounts for business to protect your Tutanota email account from spam.
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