# Forward Email vs PrivateMail: privacy compared

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

Forward Email scores higher on the public criteria: 98 out of 100, against 19 for PrivateMail. Forward Email does better on open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, independent audit, transparency report, tells users about requests, security headers, modern web standards, end-to-end encryption, encrypted mailbox storage, open protocols, custom domains, sign up without personal data, email security standards, 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 | PrivateMail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Grade | A (98/100) | F (19/100) |
| Jurisdiction | United States (Five Eyes) | United States (Five Eyes) |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| No trackers or telemetry | Yes | No |
| No ads or data sales | Yes | Partial |
| 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 | Partial |
| End-to-end encryption | Yes | Partial |
| Encrypted mailbox storage | Yes | No |
| Open protocols | Yes | Partial |
| Custom domains | Yes | Partial |
| Sign up without personal data | Yes | No |
| Email security standards | Yes | No |
| IMAP support | Yes | Not tested yet |
| POP3 support | Yes | Not tested yet |
| SMTP submission | Yes | Not tested yet |
| Mail transport security | Yes | No |
| 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%.

**PrivateMail.** PrivateMail scores 19 out of 100 (grade F) on the email providers criteria. It meets 1 of 18 criteria: TLS configuration. It partly meets no ads or data sales, modern web standards, end-to-end encryption, open protocols and custom domains. It does not meet open source, no trackers or telemetry, independent audit, transparency report, tells users about requests, security headers, encrypted mailbox storage, sign up without personal data, email security standards, mail transport security, Sender Rewriting Scheme and ARC sealing. 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 75% and Internet.nl email score 69%.

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