privacy fears Encrypted Email Sign-Ups Instantly Double In Wake of Trump Victory

[vissha]

Encrypted Email Sign-Ups Instantly Double In Wake of Trump Victory

 

 

ProtonMail suggests fear of the Donald prompting lockdown

 

"ProtonMail follows the Swiss policy of neutrality. We do not take any position for or against Trump," the Swiss company's CEO stated on Monday, before revealing that new user sign-ups immediately doubled following Trump's election victory.

 

ProtonMail has published figures showing that as soon as the election results rolled in, the public began to seek out privacy-focused services such as its own.

 

CEO Andy Yen said that, in communicating with these new users, the company found people apprehensive about the decisions that President Trump might take and what they would mean considering the surveillance activities of the National Security Agency.

 

"Given Trump's campaign rhetoric against journalists, political enemies, immigrants, and Muslims, there is concern that Trump could use the new tools at his disposal to target certain groups," Yen said. "As the NSA currently operates completely out of the public eye with very little legal oversight, all of this could be done in secret."

 

ProtonMail was launched back in May 2014 by scientists who had met at CERN and MIT. In response to the Snowden revelations regarding collusion between the NSA and other email providers such as Google, they created a government-resistant, end-to-end encrypted email service.

 

The service was so popular that it was "forced to institute a waiting list for new accounts after signups exceeded 10,000 per day" within the first three days of opening, the CEO previously told The Register when ProtonMail reopened free registration to all earlier this year.

 

ProtonMail new user signups doubled immediately after Trump's election victory

 

Yen said his service was now "seeing an influx of liberal users" despite its popularity on both sides of the political spectrum. "ProtonMail has also long been popular with the political right, who were truly worried about big government spying, and the Obama administration having access to their communications. Now the tables have turned," Yen noted.

 

"One of the problems with having a technological infrastructure that can be abused for mass surveillance purposes is that governments can and do change, quite regularly in fact.

 

Quote

This demonstrates that privacy isn't just a liberal or conservative issue, it is something that we all need to champion, regardless of our political leanings. This is why ProtonMail is committed to building a safe haven for all people in the world, regardless of nationality, political views, or religious beliefs.

 

"The only way to protect our freedom is to build technologies, such as end-to-end encryption, which cannot be abused for mass surveillance," Yen added. "Governments can change, but the laws of mathematics upon which encryption is based are much harder to change."

 

Source

[straycat19]

There are a lot of paranoid people in the world.  Surprised no one has come up with the thought that maybe the government is behind ProtonMail and they can read all the emails.  Afterall that would be an intelligence coup since the site says " ProtonMail is committed to building a safe haven for all people in the world, regardless of nationality, political views, or religious beliefs. " Personally, I believe the best email security is the one that says don't ever put anything in a text, chat, or email that you don't want the whole world to know about.  If I want to send something I don't want someone to read I can encrypt it and add it as an attachment. Since our encryption is 2048 bits, I will be long dead and gone before anyone figures out how to decrypt it, if ever.

[Pequi]

5 hours ago, straycat19 said:

 If I want to send something I don't want someone to read I can encrypt it and add it as an attachment. Since our encryption is 2048 bits, I will be long dead and gone before anyone figures out how to decrypt it, if ever.

How do you send the decryption key. Gmail ?

Seriously, it would work (and does) in a small family group, but not when there are hundreds of people involved, there are too many risks Everyone would have to have access to everyone else's decryption key. In a business cenario, there is always someone who is "blackmailable".

[oliverjia]

The only thing you need is the CNU PG. https://www.gnupg.org/ 

For Windows, all you need is gpg4Win

 

No one will ever be able to read your emails other than your intended recipients. It's end to end encryption, email providers can not do anything.