Now in the previous lectures we covered different types of email providers within each type.
There are a number of providers and each one of these providers could have their own pros and cons therefore
at this stage I wouldn't blame you if you feel a little bit confused or find it a little bit difficult
to pick which is best for you.
Now the reason why I covered so many different types because I think each one of these types is different
from the other and no one.
All of these types can be very very useful because you'll be able to pick which is best based on your
scenario.
So as I mentioned at the start of the section when you want to pick an email service you want to keep
two main things in your mind.
Why do you want to use this service and what's your threat model.
Who might be trying to anonymize you or discover your location.
Keeping that in mind and in order to revise and make it easier for you to pick a good email provider
based on your scenario I made this simple table that summarizes everything we talked about so far.
Now the main thing to keep in mind is as we go down in this table the provider type will be more private
more secure and therefore more anonymous but it will have less features.
So like I said it all comes down to why you want to use it for and what's your threat model.
So the first type of providers we had luck on were the common services such as Gmail Hotmail Yahoo mail
and all of that.
These email providers can send emails to the clear net and to the darknet as we saw they all use javascript
so they are less secure.
We know that the heavily try Q and log everything you do so they are not private.
Like I said if you really want to use these you want to make sure that you use fake identity and never
communicate with your own email addresses or any other email addresses that can link to your real identity.
They do not offer a hidden online service link and they do use ETP as encryption.
So these were the base then the other example we had was the temporary emails which in my opinion can
be very very useful in so many scenarios like we said they don't require any personal information to
sign up.
There is no sign up.
You literally get an inbox straight away and you can use it so you can have unlimited number of emails
because you're never asked to sign up.
There are more private and more anonymous than the normal email providers.
They do use JavaScript So again they're not as secure as possible they might be log in you put the cool
thing is some of them offer a hidden service so you never need to exit the Tor network when you're using
them and they also use hash TTP as to add an extra layer of encryption.
So this is a really really good option if you know what you're doing.
If you just want a temporary email to send to send something quickly to receive something quickly and
this and this will actually be destroyed once you're done with it so it can be anonymous enough it can
be great in so many scenarios.
Again if you're trying to just bypass a registration form and so on the next email providers that we
had to look on where the privacy focused or what I called hybrid services so they can communicate with
clear net and darknet services the whole.
They have a lot of nice features.
What really differentiates them from the common services such as Gmail Yahoo and all of that is the
fact that they will not try.
Q They want to be log in your movement.
They don't require personal information.
Like I said these are privacy focused.
Some of them will even have a darknet address.
So again you can access them without exiting the Tor network which will improve your privacy and anonymity.
Some of them use end to end encryption again.
In our example proton mail uses end to end encryption so like I said even if they wanted to see what
you're doing they won't be able to see it.
The only problem with these providers is the fact that they are real proper companies.
They have servers on the clear net and they have complied to court orders and disclosed information
about their users previously.
Now like I said they keep no logs and they require no personal information on the use end to end encryption.
So the amount of information they can share is limited because they don't know a lot.
But again the fact that they do comply sometimes puts them in second place in terms of anonymity.
The other thing that you want to keep in mind is the fact that they require javascript so when you use
them you need to have your security settings in the Tor browser to medium which is not very secure.
But if you're using proton mail or any other reputable email provider and if that email provider is
using his TTP as then it is secure enough to enable javascript and the medium level.
But again this is still not as secure and as anonymous as possible.
This led us to the last email providers which are completely available on the darknet.
They have no clear net addresses.
So again when you use them you never exited your network.
This increases your privacy and anonymity.
They also do not require javascript so you can put your security settings to the highest where javascript
and all of the other features of the browser are disabled.
That can be used to reduce your security or the anonymize you some of these providers allow you to communicate
with both clear net and darknet addresses such as allude.
And we also had an example of Tor box which is a provider that only allows you to communicate with darknet
addresses.
Now this is great because like I said it keeps you limited and it keeps you as anonymous as possible.
Now it goes without saying that none of these services struck you.
None of them keep logs because they run as online services they make full use of the privacy provided
by Tor.
And on top of that some providers such as elude provides end to end encryption and even personally encrypt
the storage that stores your emails and again because these are darknet services the location of their
servers is unknown and they're less likely to comply with court orders or to get influenced by government
agencies and so on.
Now like I said the examples that I'm giving you in here these are just single examples of the categories
that we see here on the left.
So do your own research if you want to learn more about each one of these categories.
And don't just take my word for granted.
Go read the privacy policy read the history of each of these companies make sure that this company or
this provider is the best for you for your scenario and only then start using it.