pookmail link isnt working, 
http://pookmail.blogspot.com/
http://code.google.com/p/pookmail/

i like this idea +1

remailers, nice

Wouldn't DuckDuckMail sound better? That way all DDG services would follow the same naming system. (DuckDuckGo, DuckDuckMail, DuckDuckVideo, DuckDuckGames, etc.)

Edit: DuckDuckBot already follows this naming system.

yeah, would be more consistent.

any updates on this?

My last company dealt with a lot of email, and needless to say it is a PITA. So while I agree with running stuff open source, I think it would make more sense to partner with an email provider with similar values.

i like the ideas of remailers and disposables, i dislike the idea of using a third party email provider. I dont see the point, we could, by using open source solutions, offer the same set of features.

yegg
can you comment your opinions on the disposable emails and remailers. I think this is a good idea.

as far as long term email support is concerned, if we aren't going to do it in house, then neomail seems to be an option worth looking into.

Hi.. I'm the founder of Neomailbox. If you'd like a trial account just email me your preferred username at ashish at neomailbox dot com and I'll get your account enabled asap.

This is a great idea - working with an established provider with a similar mindset will allow you to provide a (in my opinion) needed service while not stretching your own resources.

+1 for remailers
Great idea

i would like to see pookmail in action

+1 for mixmaster/remailers

Is it @neomail.net or @neomailbox.net, or does Neomailbox offer other name alternatives?

Thanks!

Ha! I suggested this to Gabriel the other day :) I really do think DDG should have its own mail system. I say: +1 for iRedMail. It sticks with the open source philosophy. And then build a DDG branded front end... Gmail but simpler, better and uncluttered <- not that it's really very cluttered but keeping with the search comparison.

http://lavabit.com/privacy_policy.html

"

Lavabit will not release any information related to an individual user unless legally compelled to do so.

As a necessity Lavabit is required to store private information."

bleh, considering you can be sued for just about anything now a days and be forced to obied by laws that don't even exist yet, this doesn't really mean jack diddlly.

great video, this is a prime example why a simplified web interface for services like remailers are needed.

I would recommend anyone wanting to comment further on this discussion first watch the video from youtube listed above.

tor is awesome

So the question is: how do we set up a mail system that is immune from all privacy issues, government or otherwise?

Idea 1: Put the server here: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=-74.395367,-131.420288&num=1&sll=30.232418,-89.629501&sspn=0.019282,0.032015&ie=UTF8&ll=-74.337041,-131.231689&spn=1.65574,10.821533&z=7

Idea 2: Wear a tinfoil hat every time you wish to read or send email. Just in case, you never know if your thoughts betray you.

Email passes through potentially dozens of unknown servers when it travels from your email provider to the provider of the recipient, and unless encrypted, it could be intercepted and read at any point during the course. This is my understanding, anyone more technologically advanced is welcome to correct me if i am wrong, but the connections from your computer to the outside world do not go straight from origin to destination. There are many hops in between and you have no control over these servers/internet backbones no matter which email provider you use.

For me, it's much easier to simply acknowledge and understand how open email is by nature, and simply not email anything sensitive to anyone. There are other methods for passing along secure information, and if you really need to send something sensitive by email, have your recipients go along with encryption. Problem solved, and Gmail or any other public provider will be just fine.

I'm all for privacy, don't get me wrong. I really hate the fact Google scans emails for advertising purposes, and possibly retains the emails indefinitely regardless of account deletion. But i feel it's worth understanding when methods for securing that privacy go too far to actually be usable. Basically, the ONLY email provider i would trust with 100% confidence to actually *delete* my email when i click delete, is myself if i were to run a mail server on my own.

Anyone else can keep the data indefinitely without you knowing it. I even have a SSL-secured web server running with a custom-made chat interface. Not often used, but a few friends log on now and then with their browsers to have a word with me, and that's about as private as it can get. Nobody is able to snoop on it in between, but if i put my tin hat back on, i can't really trust even my friends not to log the conversations, now can i.... ;)

Hence the tinfoil remark... If the government is interested in your emails, you're doing something wrong in the first place. And i don't mean wrong = illegal, but if your emails have something of interest, you should switch your preferred method of communication. But, go ahead and setup a mail server in Antarctica. Let me know how it works. :)

Yes i did. And i really don't care if they pull random conversations here and there, i call paranoia on vast majority of conspiracy theories claiming the government reads everyone's email, listens to every phone call and reads every SMS message ever sent. Do you know how much communications that is in any given country, let alone the whole world? I can't think of a single possible reason why anyone in my government would be interested in what i'm doing in my daily life.

I guess what i'm trying to say is, the government doesn't run after the Average Joe who goes to work by 8 in the morning, comes home to his family and spends the rest of his day getting fat in an armchair. Why should Joe care if the government knows what beer brand he enjoys? The local shopkeeper knows that already anyway.

Commercial corporations on the other hand, is where i place my concern. How they use the plentiful amounts of information they have. And the thing there is, it is us who give these corporations the information they have on us. People sign up to services like Facebook, handing over their data voluntarily without even reading the terms of service and then act surprised when their personal information is sold and used to make money by other people.

Getting off-topic anyway, and this is nothing personal. :) Just my generic thoughts... That said, if DDG really keeps this up and provides for a working email service/partnership with reliable IMAP-support, i'm in. Not because my emails are of concern, but because i really, really dislike Google.

I'd love to see a ddgmail as well. Really, any interface, no matter how bad, would be better than none. I hope that ddg will grow, and one way to help add to that growth would be with email services. Many of us are getting fed up with Google, and are ready to make a switch.

Has anybody had any luck sending messages with Lavabit? I received one after guessing at the email address, but I sent a couple message to another of my email accounts and they never arrived

What do people think of this: http://my.opera.com/mailteam/blog/welcome-to-my-opera-mail

Re.: My.Opera mail -- Looks polished, clean, no feature bloat, good start.

Here there are two other alternatives:

http://www.privacyharbor.com/detailed-feature-comparison.html

https://www.hushmail.com/services/hushmail/features/

Have you already used one of them?

I want to move my email addresses to one secure email, but I don't know what's the best service.

I've already read about neomailbox.com above, but I've not understood if it's the official partner of duckduckgo.

Why are they locking you out?  Do you think it has to do with someone at Google knowing you run DuckDuckGo? 

I developed a system so my own email server would automatically encrypt all of my incoming email with my public PGP key so even if my server or account details are compromised, my email would be unreadable without my private key. If more mail systems did this, then they wouldn't be able to hand over email to the authorities even if they were compelled to. You can read up on how I did it (and download the software) here:

I'm testing "Hushmail" (using the java applet to make it more secure) and it's very good. Okay, 2 MB if you choose the free account, but if you don't experience problems, you can upgrade to the premium plan, 35$/year, not so much for our privacy.

I've also seen neomailbox and what it offers: the plan mail + secure connection (behind their proxies) seems very very good (70$). The fact that emails are stored in Switzerland, a neutral territory, where today the banking secrecy still exists, I guess it comes as security.

you could also look in to STARTTLS SMTP extension

The STARTTLS SMTP extension is a TLS (SSL) layer on top of the SMTP connection. While it protects traffic from being sniffed during transmission, it is technically not encryption of e-mails because the content of messages is revealed to, and can be tampered with by, involved email relays. In other words, the encryption takes place between individual SMTP relays, not between the sender and the recipient. When both relays support STARTTLS, it may be used regardless of whether the e-mail's contents are encrypted using another protocol.

STARTTLS is also an extension of IMAP4 and POP3
http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4616


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_encryption

any possibility of either developing some new system/protocols to allow anonymous pseudonymous email like communication methods.

better yet, there are some large projects already in place that may be attempting the same type of concept ... tor, freenet, i2p, freedombox, ect ect ...

the more i think about this subject, it seems this is the best option. We cant except to use systems and protocols readly available because they were developed with none of our interests in mind ... they are trackable and predictable by nature ... and lets face it. Even if you used a service that was secure (less gpg/pgp encryption) the majority of individuals you would be emailing would be using .. gmail, yahoo, aol ..

Lets face it, gpg encryption as it stands, is not user friendly, not for newbs

I would like to add Zoho Mail as a candidate for DDG email provider:

https://zmail.zoho.com/

Been using them for some months and so far this is what I like the most:

- imap/pop3 support
- no ads anywhere (this includes not scanning your emails to display "relevant" ads)
- tabs (even a tab for composing email.. side note: something that thunderbird has not been clever enough to implement since they started to work with tabs.. v5 is out and it still doesn't have a compose tab.. just a separate window)
- folders and labels (you use wathever fits your taste)
- unlimited storage (with reasonable per-day usage limitations)
- advanced filters (been able to do in one filter rule what it takes several filter rules in gmail)
- your machine IP is not sent on email headers
- SSL 256 bits encription (gmail is 128 bits)
- optional "preview panel" (a "vertical" layout is missing though.. would be useful for widescreen displays)
- keyboard shortcuts

Wait a minute... is Zohomail free? Because I clicked on the link and it gave me an account right off the bat.

Yes, it's free... you have to pay to host your own domain though (like google apps mail).

http://www.mailenable.com/

I know it's not free, well, it is for personal use which in this case, is not but people rate it well. The pro edition is 349 a year I believe. I don't know if donations are a possibility here but maybe?

well, all the option involves some money... as a reference, google apps mail (gmail for business...) is $50/user/year

neomailbox.net isn't cheap either... 10 GB there is about $45/user/MONTH!

http://neomailbox.net/custom_packages.html

Zoho Mail doesn't sound too expensive now...

I think partnering would be expensive, unless you were going to charge which may be an option. I think this is a great long term goal. Personally I'd run it myself but limit signups as you can cope with spammers, maintenance, etc. I would actually prefer to see more ducks crawling the web and that time frame based search working ;-).

I've switched to lavabit.com from gmail because they store email encrypted (only on paid accounts) and only readable by me (if you turn the option on). I do this simply because I value my privacy.