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GhostMail Closes in September, Leaves Users Searching For Secure Email Alternatives (zdnet.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the disappearing-act dept.

On September 1, "GhostMail will no longer provide secure email services unless you are an enterprise client," reports ZDNet. "According to the company, it is 'simply not worth the risk.'" GhostMail provided a free and anonymous "military encrypted" e-mail service based in Switzerland, and collected "as little metadata" as possible. But this week on its home page, GhostMail told its users "Since we started our project, the world has changed for the worse and we do not want to take the risk of supplying our extremely secure service to the wrong people... In general, we believe strongly in the right to privacy, but we have taken a strategic decision to only supply our platform and services to the enterprise segment."

GhostMail is referring their users to other free services like Protonmail as an alternative, but an anonymous Slashdot reader asks: What options does an average person have for non-NSA-spied-on email? I am sure there are still some Ghostmail competitors out there but I'm wondering if it's better to coax friends and family to use encryption within their given client (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, whatever...) And are there any options for hosting a "private" email service: inviting friends and family to use it and have it kind of hosted locally. Ghostmail-in-a-box or some such?

3 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Similar happened with anon.penet.fi by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Those of us old enough to remember when Usenet was a critical online resource will remember when anon.penet.fi provided a helpful, pseudonymous email and NNTP service. It was invaluable for people discussing issues that were not work safe, ranging from dating services to gender identity to cancer fears to AIDS help to thoughts of suicide. Some typical coverage was done by Wired, quoting the Observer newspaper, at:

            http://www.wired.com/1996/11/a...

    What was amazing about most of the press reports at the time was how they failed to identify the incident that caused Julf Helsingius to shut down anon.penet.fi. The incident is better described at:

          http://articles.latimes.com/19...

    Simply put, someone kept using anon.penet.fi to post court documents revealing Scientology's inner secrets. The documents are infamous and broadly available online, but 20 years ago they were not so broadly avaialble.

    Why do I mention this? Partly because it points out that anonymous, and pseudonymous services, are always at risk from court ordered revelations about their clients. And I mention it partly because it's vital to see press coverage about the events as possibly skewed by fears of retaliation by powerful groups. 20 years ago, man reporters were justifiably _frightened_ of covering Scientology stories. They remembered what had happened to Paulette Cooper, who wrote about them and had bomb threats faked in her name by the cult. Today, press coverage that risks the ire of Fox News or of the Department of Homeland Security or run afoul of the so-called Patriot Act are at similar risks of abusive, extra-judicial censorship with little safe recourse.,

    I'm afraid the desire to censor communications is always around. I do look forward to better details about what triggered the closing of GhostMail's free services. I hope it wasn't a similar abuse of authority, but see real reasons to be concerned that it _is_ about Patriot Act or other government enforced tracking of users.

    1. Re:Similar happened with anon.penet.fi by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 3, Interesting

      > Fox News gets bent out of shape about something,

      Getting "bent out of shape" is not the problem. It's the fraudulent crusades against political, ethical, or ideological opponents. that are the problem.

      Fox News repeatedly, and sadly effectively, misreports basic news to anger and mislead their viewers for ideological reasons. There were numerous examples during the conservative furor that led to the Iraq War. Such deceit was present during the "Black Lives Matter" protests, the "Occupy Wall Street" protests, and the Fox reporting on the fraudulent "abortion harvesting" videos about Planned Parenthood.

      > Fox News here is merely an example of the pulpit,

      The danger is that they represent themselves as a news organization, not a political pulpit. This means that their fraudulent attacks are taken more seriously than those from a more openly political spokesperson.

  2. Secure overseas email by ArtemaOne · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I have had a very secure overseas email service for the last decade and a half. I don't want other people to start using it, however.