Forward Email privacy rating

Summary

Forward Email scores 89 out of 100 (grade B) on the email providers criteria. It meets 16 of 19 criteria: no ads or data sales, independent audit, tells users about requests, TLS configuration, security headers, end-to-end encryption, encrypted mailbox storage, open protocols, custom domains, sign up without personal data, IMAP support, POP3 support, SMTP submission, mail transport security, Sender Rewriting Scheme and ARC sealing. It partly meets open source, no trackers or telemetry and transparency report. It is based in the United States: Five Eyes member; subject to the US CLOUD Act. Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A+ and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade A+.

Score 89 out of 100. How scoring works

Criteria

• ◐Partial

  Open source ×3Weight 3 of 3

  Is the source code public under an OSI-approved license?

  The entire service (web, API, IMAP, POP3, SMTP, MX, CalDAV and CardDAV servers) is public. Core mail storage and protocol code is MPL-2.0. The rest is BUSL-1.1, which is source-available and becomes MPL-2.0 four years after each release. BUSL-1.1 is not OSI-approved today.

  github.com

• ◐Partial

  No trackers or telemetry ×3Weight 3 of 3

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

  No third-party analytics or telemetry. First-party page statistics keep no IP addresses, cookies or identifiers and are deleted after 30 days. Cloudflare Turnstile loads only on sign-in and sign-up forms to stop bots.

  forwardemail.net

• ✔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 plans. No ads.

  forwardemail.net

• ✔Yes

  Independent audit ×2Weight 2 of 3

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

  Two independent Cure53 audits of the code and infrastructure, published by Cure53 and on forwardemail.net.

  cure53.de

• ◐Partial

  Transparency report ×2Weight 2 of 3

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

  The technical whitepaper (section 9.3) publishes the government request policy and commits to regular transparency reports with request counts. A report with counts is not published yet.

  forwardemail.net

• ✔Yes

  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?

  Users are notified of requests when legally allowed, with notice after disclosure when advance notice is prohibited.

  forwardemail.net

• ✔Yes

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

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

  Mail is automatically encrypted with OpenPGP when the recipient publishes a key through Web Key Directory. OpenPGP/MIME and S/MIME work with any app.

  forwardemail.net

• ✔Yes

  Encrypted mailbox storage ×3Weight 3 of 3

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

  Each mailbox is a separately encrypted SQLite file (ChaCha20-Poly1305). The technical whitepaper states Forward Email cannot access mailbox contents.

  forwardemail.net

• ✔Yes

  Open protocols ×2Weight 2 of 3

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

  IMAP, POP3, SMTP, CalDAV and CardDAV on every paid plan, with no bridge app.

  forwardemail.net

• ✔Yes

  Custom domains ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Can mail be sent and received with your own domain?

  Unlimited domains on every plan.

  forwardemail.net

• ✔Yes

  Sign up without personal data ×2Weight 2 of 3

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

  Free forwarding is set up entirely with DNS records, with no account at all. Paid mailboxes need only an email address and password, never a phone number.

  forwardemail.net

• ✔Yes

  Sender Rewriting Scheme ×1Weight 1 of 3

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

  Applied automatically to all forwarded mail.

  forwardemail.net

• ✔Yes

  ARC sealing ×1Weight 1 of 3

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

  ARC chains are validated (RFC 8617) and forwarded mail is ARC-sealed.

  forwardemail.net

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

• ✔Yes

  Security headers ×1Weight 1 of 3

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

  Grade A+ (125/100+)

  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?

  imap.forwardemail.net:993 (implicit TLS). IMAP4rev1 advertised with IDLE.

• ✔Yes

  POP3 support ×1Weight 1 of 3

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

  pop3.forwardemail.net:995 (implicit TLS). CAPA: TOP, UIDL, USER, RESP-CODES, SASL, PIPELINING.

• ✔Yes

  SMTP submission ×2Weight 2 of 3

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

  smtp.forwardemail.net:465 (implicit TLS). SMTPUTF8, 8BITMIME, PIPELINING and AUTH advertised.

• ✔Yes

  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 reject, MTA-STS enforce, TLS-RPT, DNSSEC, DANE all.

Email standards

• ✔Yes: Mail serversMXmx1.forwardemail.net, mx2.forwardemail.net
• ✔Yes: RFC 7208 sender policySPFpublished
• ✔Yes: RFC 7489. Quarantine or reject counts as enforcedDMARCp=reject
• ✔Yes: RFC 8461 strict transport securityMTA-STSenforce
• ✔Yes: RFC 8460 TLS failure reportsTLS-RPTpublished
• ✔Yes: RFC 4033 signed DNSDNSSECsigned and validated
• ✔Yes: RFC 7672 TLSA records on MX hostsDANEall
• ✖No: Brand logo record (not scored)BIMInone
• ✔Yes: RFC 6186 and RFC 8314 service records (not scored)SRVclient autoconfiguration published

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