Don’t be naughty! We’ve got some nice tips for sending holiday messages in private.
‘Tis the season to send holiday cards and annual updates to family and friends! When sharing personal news detailing highlights from the year, like exciting new job opportunities, awesome report card scores or awe-inspiring vacation photos, think first about who might be seeing your message. Hint: you might find some of these folks on Santa’s “naughty” list.
While we don’t mean to be a Grinch, Startpage will always be straightforward with you about the many ways your privacy can be infringed upon. The harsh reality is that we live in a world where your email and text messages can be accessed by unintended individuals or entities if you are not using encryption. This means your data is scrambled in a manner that ensures that if it is intercepted, the content is incomprehensible. This means that only people you WANT to read your messages can do so — and now you have access to this level of privacy at Startpage.
When it comes to keeping messages private, the solution is having them encrypted!
You may have heard the term “End-to-end encryption” (E2EE), which describes a system of communication where only the communicating users can read the messages. In principle, it stops potential eavesdroppers from being able to access the cryptographic keys needed to decrypt the conversation. Such eavesdroppers could include telecom providers, Internet providers, the provider of the communication service or hackers.
The best way to ensure that your messages are secured is to use an end-to-end encryption service provider or app. Today, none of the widely known free email services like Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo offer end-to-end encryption. If you’re sending sensitive information like your Social Security Number, financial statements or your family’s secret stuffing recipe, you’ll want to make sure your information is encrypted.
Leading encrypted messaging apps listed alphabetically
Signal
Private Messenger Signal is an open-source project by Open Whisper Systems, meaning it can be easily examined for security holes. A Startpage user like yourself may already know that an open-source app is one that can be accessed by anyone who knows how to code, provided they have verified credentials within the app. The Signal app is free for anyone to download and is available across Android, desktop and iOS. In their words, “By design, it does not store a record of your contacts, social graph, conversation list, location, user avatar, user profile name, group memberships, group titles, or group avatars.”
Furthermore, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recommends using the Signal messaging app for end-to-end encryption — and this group tends to know their privacy!
Whatsapp has over 1.5 billion users worldwide, so chances are that if you’re not already on it, someone in your personal network is! The popular app is available on a variety of platforms, including Windows and macOS computers, and Android and iOS mobile devices.
One important note here is that Whatsapp is owned by Facebook, and you know all the privacy issues they’ve had over the years. While Whatsapp does offer end-to-end encryption, many people are cautious to trust their service due to its association with Facebook. Here is their privacy policy for further investigation.
Wire
Similar to Signal, Wire is an end-to-end encryption and open-source messaging app. One difference is that you can sign up with your email versus sharing your phone number like Signal and Whatsapp.
According to the Wire team, their app offers “a comprehensive collaboration suite featuring messenger, voice, video, conference calls, file-sharing, and external collaboration.” However, it’s noteworthy that their app collects and logs metadata from your messages, including the contact you spoke with.
Encrypted Email Service
StartMail
In full disclosure, StartMail is a sister company of ours, so we tend to think very highly of the great product their team delivers. Their service uses state‐of‐the‐art security like PFS (TLS 1.1 & 1.2) and extra-secure vaults to keep your communications and data safe.
StartMail offers easy to use, one-click PGP encryption compatible with all major browsers and allows you to send an encrypted email to anyone. You can sign up for an official email account for an annual fee of $59.95 that includes:
- 10 GB personal vault
- IMAP support
- 10 custom aliases
- Unlimited disposable aliases
- PGP email encryption
For a full overview of StartMail, read PC Mag’s review here. (https://www.pcmag.com/review/332083/startmail)
Lastly, before we sign off, Startpage wishes everyone a happy holiday season full of love, joy and lots of privacy!
Privacy Pro Tip If you’d like to try encrypted email for free before switching over entirely, StartMail offers a 1-week trial. Sign up with no charge for here. https://mail.startmail.com/signup?lang=en.
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