With encryption issues and private citizen privacy rights being a source of constant debate among government institutions, tech companies, and the citizens themselves, services and apps that promise end-to-end encryption are the in thing. One such email service is ProtonMail, and now after coming out of beta on the web version, they have also released the Android app for smartphones and tablets. Soon, the code for the app will also become open source, just like its web interface.
ProtonMail has actually been around since 2014, created after the whistleblowing scandal of former NSA employee Edward Snowden. It raised funds through crowdfunding in order to build a “zero access architecture” web-based email system. After its launch and by March 2015, there were already 350,000 beta sign-ups and now, they say they have over a million users. Just like Gmail, they started out as an invite-only service, but now anyone can sign up. And with the launch of its Android mobile app, they will probably get even more users.
Of course the attraction to ProtonMail would be its promised end-to-end encryption. The reasoning behind this business decision is since they do not have the encryption keys anyway, the government cannot force them to hand over anything that would violate the privacy of their users. But currently, this is what some US lawmakers are demanding of tech companies, even going so far as to tell them to rewrite their code, which in this case they would need to in order to comply to a future law that would demand that from them.
But for now, while the legal and moral debates are still ongoing, you might want to try out the ProtonMail Android app if end-to-end encryption is something you really care about. You can download it for free from the Google Play Store.
VIA: TechCrunch
