StartMail privacy rating

Summary

StartMail scores 66 out of 100 (grade C) on the email providers criteria. It meets 10 of 19 criteria: no ads or data sales, transparency report, TLS configuration, encrypted mailbox storage, open protocols, custom domains, sign up without personal data, IMAP support, SMTP submission and mail transport security. It partly meets no trackers or telemetry, security headers and end-to-end encryption. It does not meet open source, independent audit, tells users about requests, POP3 support, Sender Rewriting Scheme and ARC sealing. It is based in the Netherlands: Nine Eyes member; EU member (GDPR). Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A+ and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade B+.

Score 66 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.

• ◐Partial

  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 third-party tracking or advertising data sharing, but website analytics use self-hosted Matomo, which sets cookies.

  startmail.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 plans. No ads and no data sales.

  startmail.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.

• ✔Yes

  Transparency report ×2Weight 2 of 3

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

  Publishes yearly counts of legal orders processed and what information was provided.

  startmail.com

• ✖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.

• ◐Partial

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

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

  PGP and password-protected messages are built into the webmail, but encryption is chosen per message.

  startmail.com

• ✔Yes

  Encrypted mailbox storage ×3Weight 3 of 3

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

  All mail is stored in an encrypted User Vault that opens only with the account password or a recovery key.

  startmail.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. POP3 is not supported.

  support.startmail.com

• ✔Yes

  Custom domains ×1Weight 1 of 3

  Can mail be sent and received with your own domain?

  The Personal plan includes one custom domain. The Business plan allows unlimited domains.

  startmail.com

• ✔Yes

  Sign up without personal data ×2Weight 2 of 3

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

  A name and recovery email address are optional. Sign-up uses an hCaptcha check.

  startmail.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+ (80/100+)

  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.startmail.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.

• ✔Yes

  SMTP submission ×2Weight 2 of 3

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

  smtp.startmail.com: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 quarantine, MTA-STS enforce, TLS-RPT, DNSSEC, DANE all.

Email standards

• ✔Yes: Mail serversMXmx1.startmail.com, mx2.startmail.com, mx3.startmail.com, mx4.startmail.com
• ✔Yes: RFC 7208 sender policySPFpublished
• ✔Yes: RFC 7489. Quarantine or reject counts as enforcedDMARCp=quarantine
• ✔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