Email providers
PrivateMail privacy rating
Paid email service from PrivateMail LLC in the United States, made by the team behind TorGuard VPN, with OpenPGP encryption in the browser and apps and encrypted file storage.
Summary
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%.
Score 19 out of 100. How scoring works
Criteria
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No
Open source Weight 3 of 3
Is all the source code needed to run the product public?
No source code is published. The site says it uses open-source encryption libraries.
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No
No trackers or telemetry Weight 3 of 3
Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default?
The website loads the LiveChat widget, and the privacy policy describes Google Analytics and cookies from third-party analytics providers.
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Partial
No ads or data sales Weight 2 of 3
Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data?
Funded by paid plans, with no ads in the mail service and no sale of personal data. The privacy policy allows interest-based advertising of Private-Mail on other websites.
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No
Independent audit Weight 2 of 3
Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years?
No independent audit is published.
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No
Transparency report Weight 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.
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No
Tells users about requests Weight 1 of 3
Does the provider promise to tell users about requests for their data, unless a court forbids it?
The privacy policy states that personal information is disclosed without notice when required by law or legal process.
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Partial
End-to-end encryption Weight 3 of 3
Can mail be end-to-end encrypted so that the provider cannot read message contents?
OpenPGP is built into the webmail and apps, with keys generated and kept on the device. It must be turned on and recipients' public keys imported, so it is not on by default.
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No
Encrypted mailbox storage Weight 3 of 3
Is stored mail encrypted with a key the provider does not hold?
Only messages encrypted with OpenPGP are documented as unreadable on the server. Encryption of other stored mail is not documented.
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Partial
Open protocols Weight 2 of 3
Can any standard app connect over IMAP, POP3, SMTP, CalDAV or CardDAV, without extra software?
POP3, IMAP and SMTP are listed only on the Business plans. The Standard and Pro plans are webmail and app only.
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Partial
Custom domains Weight 1 of 3
Can mail be sent and received with your own domain?
Only on the Business plans.
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No
Sign up without personal data Weight 2 of 3
Can an account be created without a phone number or another email address?
Paying with cryptocurrency needs no name or billing address, but an existing email address is required.
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No
Sender Rewriting Scheme Weight 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.
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No
ARC sealing Weight 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
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Yes
TLS configuration Weight 2 of 3
Does the website pass the Qualys SSL Labs test with a grade of A or better?
Grade A
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No
Security headers Weight 1 of 3
Does the website pass the Mozilla HTTP Observatory test with a grade of A or better?
Grade D (30/100+)
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Partial
Modern web standards Weight 1 of 3
Does the website score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl website test?
Score 75%
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No
Email security standards Weight 2 of 3
Does the mail domain score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl email test?
Score 69%
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Not tested yet
IMAP support Weight 2 of 3
Does the IMAP server accept connections over implicit TLS on port 993 and advertise IMAP4rev1 or IMAP4rev2 with IDLE push?
Could not test: No server found (set a host in the rating file or publish RFC 6186 SRV records)
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Not tested yet
POP3 support Weight 1 of 3
Does the POP3 server accept connections over implicit TLS on port 995 and answer CAPA with UIDL?
Could not test: No server found (set a host in the rating file or publish RFC 6186 SRV records)
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Not tested yet
SMTP submission Weight 2 of 3
Does mail submission work over implicit TLS on port 465 with SMTPUTF8, 8BITMIME, PIPELINING and AUTH?
Could not test: No server found (set a host in the rating file or publish RFC 6186 SRV records)
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No
Mail transport security Weight 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. Missing: MTA-STS missing, TLS-RPT, DNSSEC, DANE none.
Email standards
- Yes: Mail serversMXmx1.mailchannels.net, mx2.mailchannels.net
- Yes: RFC 7208 sender policySPFpublished
- Yes: RFC 7489. Quarantine or reject counts as enforcedDMARCp=reject
- No: RFC 8461 strict transport securityMTA-STSmissing
- No: RFC 8460 TLS failure reportsTLS-RPTmissing
- No: RFC 4033 signed DNSDNSSECnot validated
- No: RFC 7672 TLSA records on MX hostsDANEnone
- No: Brand logo record (not scored)BIMInone
- No: RFC 6186 and RFC 8314 service records (not scored)SRVnone
IMAP
Could not test: No server found (set a host in the rating file or publish RFC 6186 SRV records)
POP3
Could not test: No server found (set a host in the rating file or publish RFC 6186 SRV records)
SMTP submission
Could not test: No server found (set a host in the rating file or publish RFC 6186 SRV records)
Capabilities are what each server advertises before login. How these tests work