# Forward Email vs Lavabit: privacy compared

## Which is more private, Forward Email or Lavabit?

Forward Email scores higher on the public criteria: 98 out of 100, against 26 for Lavabit. Forward Email does better on independent audit, transparency report, tells users about requests, security headers, modern web standards, email security standards, IMAP support, SMTP submission, mail transport security, Sender Rewriting Scheme and ARC sealing. Disclosure. Privacy Ratings is maintained by the team behind Forward Email. This entry is scored by the same criteria as every other email provider, and changes to it are reviewed under the published conflict-of-interest rules.

| Criterion | Forward Email | Lavabit |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Grade | A (98/100) | F (26/100) |
| Jurisdiction | United States (Five Eyes) | United States (Five Eyes) |
| Open source | Yes | Unknown |
| No trackers or telemetry | Yes | Yes |
| No ads or data sales | Yes | Unknown |
| Independent audit | Yes | No |
| Transparency report | Partial | No |
| Tells users about requests | Yes | No |
| TLS configuration | Yes | Yes |
| Security headers | Yes | No |
| Modern web standards | Yes | No |
| End-to-end encryption | Yes | Unknown |
| Encrypted mailbox storage | Yes | Unknown |
| Open protocols | Yes | Unknown |
| Custom domains | Yes | Unknown |
| Sign up without personal data | Yes | Unknown |
| Email security standards | Yes | Partial |
| IMAP support | Yes | Partial |
| POP3 support | Yes | Yes |
| SMTP submission | Yes | Partial |
| Mail transport security | Yes | Partial |
| Sender Rewriting Scheme | Yes | No |
| ARC sealing | Yes | No |

**Forward Email.** Forward Email scores 98 out of 100 (grade A) on the email providers criteria. It meets 20 of 21 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, independent audit, tells users about requests, TLS configuration, security headers, modern web standards, end-to-end encryption, encrypted mailbox storage, open protocols, custom domains, sign up without personal data, email security standards, IMAP support, POP3 support, SMTP submission, mail transport security, Sender Rewriting Scheme and ARC sealing. It partly meets transparency report. It is based in the United States: Five Eyes member; subject to the US CLOUD Act. Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A+, Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade A+, Internet.nl website score 100% and Internet.nl email score 100%.

**Lavabit.** Lavabit scores 26 out of 100 (grade F) on the email providers criteria. It meets 3 of 21 criteria: no trackers or telemetry, TLS configuration and POP3 support. It partly meets email security standards, IMAP support, SMTP submission and mail transport security. It does not meet independent audit, transparency report, tells users about requests, security headers, modern web standards, Sender Rewriting Scheme and ARC sealing. Still needing evidence: open source, no ads or data sales, end-to-end encryption, encrypted mailbox storage, open protocols, custom domains and sign up without personal data. It is based in the United States: Five Eyes member; subject to the US CLOUD Act. Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A+, Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade D, Internet.nl website score 68% and Internet.nl email score 71%.

Source: https://privacyratings.com/compare/email-providers/forward-email-vs-lavabit/