I’ve used OnlyOffice (FOSS, really modern) and Softmaker Office, which is a proprietary German alternative with native Linux support. It also has the best docx compatibility of the Microsoft alternatives.

I’m glad you like it, but I’m just going to point out that Yahoo, which the AOL privacy policy page refers to, has probably the single most invasive email policy of any major provider.

Yahoo analyzes and stores all communications content, including email content from incoming and outgoing mail. This allows us to deliver, personalize and develop relevant features, content, advertising and Services.

They allude to telemetry, and use additional tracking even when not signed in. I hate saying this, but even Google has a better privacy policy.

That’s kind of the point for a lot of us who opt to pay for an email. When email is free, it’s because your data is the product.

I do like Tutanota’s approach to encryption, but communication outside of other Tutanota addresses is less secure than PGP. It’s just a symmetric, password-based scheme.

Since you will probably deal with a lot of non-tuta email providers, it’s a hard sell for me. In network, though, it’s good.

Second issue I had with it was the email client. I like my third party client and it’s built into my workflow. Tuta doesn’t support third party clients because they consider the storage of emails on your local drive a security risk. (That’s only true if your hard drive isn’t encrypted, and setting up encryption isn’t all that hard to do)

I use K9. It went through a rough patch a few years ago with the UI, but it’s much better now. Mozilla is involved and K9 is in the process of becoming the Thunderbird app.

Yeah, his requirements for an email provider are well above what most people need.

Email is not a secure means of communication in most cases. If the recipient isn’t encrypting, then your communications to them are vulnerable anyway. And in the vast majority of cases, they probably aren’t.

Really, the best thing about getting a more privacy conscious provider is not giving all your data over to Google.

When I was a little kid, maybe 5 years old, my family lived in this old house that used to be a Civil War hospital during a few battles.

All kinds of weird shit happened there, but one event stands out.

I was sleeping between my parents in their bed on the second floor. I woke up. It was late and very dark.

I looked to my right and saw the curtains blowing in. The windows were painted shut. I watched as the curtains start to slide off the wall. It looked like someone was holding them up. I shit you not. Like I could see feet just underneath the bottom.

The curtains moved to the foot of the bed, and fell.

I don’t remember seeing this, but my parents swear I told them that when the curtains fell, a woman with a yellow dress and no eyes had been holding them up, and that she stood at the foot of the bed for a while.

The curtains, according to my parents, we’re in fact on the floor at the foot of the bed. I can’t vouch for that though because I was a kid and frankly, don’t remember.

My best non-supernatural explanation is that I had sleep paralysis that night and hallucinated much of what I saw. I’ve had it chronically since, so it’s possible.

I don’t know though. It’s one of those things I think about late at night when I have too much free time. What the fuck did I see?

Good point! That’s an option for most email providers, and that’s fine for most applications. I just like using a desktop client, but if you don’t, then that’s not even a factor for Tutanota.

I personally like Mailfence. But the others aren’t bad alternatives either.

Fastmail is Australia-based, so it’s a privacy nightmare. If you’re okay with that, it’s cheap and works. You get a lot of storage for what you pay.

Tutanota is a German option, but you have to use their email client. They use a custom encryption protocol instead of your typical PGP. They’re good, but at the end of the day I like my third party email client.

Mailfence is Belgian and only has infrastructure in Belgium. So they don’t even respond to court orders outside that jurisdiction. They offer PGP. Also support IMAPS, etc, so you can use your own email client.

I don’t like ProtonMail, and I know this is probably going to be an unpopular opinion, but I don’t like them. They have been busted giving client data to law enforcement without a warrant, they don’t encrypt the email subject line, they still log IPs like every other service, and they received a ton of venture capital funding. I fully expect their enshittification to happen soon.

Posteo and mailbox(.)org are also options. Never used them so I can’t vouch. I hear good things about both though.

And if you’re in Europe or have your own domain, Infomaniak offers a suite comparable to Google’s at a competitive price. I haven’t used it either but it could be good.