CounterMail privacy rating

Summary

CounterMail scores 62 out of 100 (grade C) on the email providers criteria. It meets 9 of 19 criteria: no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, TLS configuration, end-to-end encryption, encrypted mailbox storage, open protocols, custom domains, sign up without personal data and IMAP support. It partly meets security headers, SMTP submission and mail transport security. It does not meet open source, independent audit, transparency report, tells users about requests, POP3 support, Sender Rewriting Scheme and ARC sealing. It is based in Sweden: Fourteen Eyes member; EU member (GDPR). Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A+ and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade B.

Score 62 out of 100. How scoring works

Criteria

• ✖No

  Open source ×3Weight 3 of 3

  Is all the source code needed to run the product public?

  Closed source.

• ✔Yes

  No trackers or telemetry ×3Weight 3 of 3

  Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default?

  No cookies and no IP logging, and the website loads no third-party trackers.

  countermail.com

• ✔Yes

  No ads or data sales ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data?

  Funded by paid accounts. Account data is never shared or sold.

  countermail.com

• ✖No

  Independent audit ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years?

  No independent audit is published.

• ✖No

  Transparency report ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Does the provider regularly publish how many government and legal requests it receives and how it responds?

  No transparency report or government request policy is published.

• ✖No

  Tells users about requests ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Does the provider promise to tell users about requests for their data, unless a court forbids it?

  No published policy on notifying users about data requests.

• ✔Yes

  End-to-end encryption ×3Weight 3 of 3

  Can mail be end-to-end encrypted so that the provider cannot read message contents?

  OpenPGP encryption is built in and automatic between users, and works with any OpenPGP user outside CounterMail.

  countermail.com

• ✔Yes

  Encrypted mailbox storage ×3Weight 3 of 3

  Is stored mail encrypted with a key the provider does not hold?

  Mail is stored encrypted with the user's OpenPGP key, and incoming unencrypted mail is encrypted on arrival.

  countermail.com

• ✔Yes

  Open protocols ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Can any standard app connect over IMAP, POP3, SMTP, CalDAV or CardDAV, without extra software?

  IMAP and SMTP work with any client on premium accounts, with a PGP plugin needed to read mail.

  support.countermail.com

• ✔Yes

  Custom domains ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Can mail be sent and received with your own domain?

  Available for a one-time setup fee.

  countermail.com

• ✔Yes

  Sign up without personal data ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Can an account be created without a phone number or another email address?

  Registration asks only for a username, password and invitation code, but it is closed to new users.

  webmail.countermail.com

• ✖No

  Sender Rewriting Scheme ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Is the envelope sender rewritten with SRS when mail is forwarded, so forwarded mail keeps passing SPF?

  No published documentation on SRS for forwarded mail.

• ✖No

  ARC sealing ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Does the provider validate and add ARC (RFC 8617) signatures, so authentication results survive forwarding?

  No published documentation on ARC signing or validation.

Automated tests

• ✔Yes

  TLS configuration ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Does the website pass the Qualys SSL Labs test with a grade of A or better?

  Grade A+

  ssllabs.com

• ◐Partial

  Security headers ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Does the website pass the Mozilla HTTP Observatory test with a grade of A or better?

  Grade B (75/100+)

  developer.mozilla.org

• …Not tested yet

  Modern web standards ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Does the website score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl website test?

  Not tested yet.

• …Not tested yet

  Email security standards ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Does the mail domain score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl email test?

  Not tested yet.

• ✔Yes

  IMAP support ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Does the IMAP server accept connections over implicit TLS on port 993 and advertise IMAP4rev1 or IMAP4rev2 with IDLE push?

  imap1.countermail.com:993 (implicit TLS). IMAP4rev1 advertised with IDLE.

• ✖No

  POP3 support ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Does the POP3 server accept connections over implicit TLS on port 995 and answer CAPA with UIDL?

  Not offered.

• ◐Partial

  SMTP submission ×2Weight 2 of 3

  Does mail submission work over implicit TLS on port 465 with SMTPUTF8, 8BITMIME, PIPELINING and AUTH?

  imap1.countermail.com:465 (implicit TLS). Missing: SMTPUTF8.

• ◐Partial

  Mail transport security ×3Weight 3 of 3

  Does the mail domain enforce encrypted, authenticated delivery with MTA-STS, DANE, DNSSEC, TLS-RPT and an enforced DMARC policy?

  Passes: SPF, DMARC quarantine, DNSSEC, DANE all. Missing: MTA-STS missing, TLS-RPT.

Email standards

• ✔Yes: Mail serversMXdb1.countermail.com
• ✔Yes: RFC 7208 sender policySPFpublished
• ✔Yes: RFC 7489. Quarantine or reject counts as enforcedDMARCp=quarantine
• ✖No: RFC 8461 strict transport securityMTA-STSmissing
• ✖No: RFC 8460 TLS failure reportsTLS-RPTmissing
• ✔Yes: RFC 4033 signed DNSDNSSECsigned and validated
• ✔Yes: RFC 7672 TLSA records on MX hostsDANEall
• ✖No: Brand logo record (not scored)BIMInone
• ✖No: RFC 6186 and RFC 8314 service records (not scored)SRVnone

Capabilities are what each server advertises before login. How these tests work