In this case, wouldn’t rolling your own email server make it even easier to find you, since they’ll just have to look up who registered the domain you used for your email address?
Comment on Privacy-Focused Proton Mail Aids FBI in Uncovering ‘Stop Cop City’ Protester’s True Identity
floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Again, they did not “aid” nor “give” that information. They were legally obliged to do so. There was never a choice. This could’ve happened with literally any company, E2EE stops them from being forced to turn over the emails themselves, but basic account metadata (creation date, payment methods, contact details, potentially IP access logs) will always be available. What you can do is limit the amount of information a provider requires/saves (for which Proton is a good choice) or don’t rely on a company at all and roll your own email server.
Venator@lemmy.nz 19 hours ago
floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 hours ago
Depending on how you register the domain, there are some registrars that require no info at all. One of those paid with Monero creates no links to your identity.
But yes, self-hosting does not shield you from court orders. If they find you they can still access your shit, depending on how much your country’s infosec police gives a shit and/or how closely they cooperate with US agencies.
joe@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Yeah, it’s the distinction between “anonymous” and “private”.
tb_@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Furthermore, you can pay with bitcoin or even cash (sent to their HQ by mail). That way they’d have even less on you.
veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 hours ago
Furthermore, you can pay with bitcoin or even cash (sent to their HQ by mail). That way they’d have even less on you.
With the caveat that in some of their procedures they (seem to?) require to append account information in the mail, so if the postage can be traced back to you that’s an issue.
tb_@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Yeah, not sure how it’d work with return addresses and whatnot. But if the letter itself is intercepted there’s probably more that can be used to trace back to you, unless you only handled the money and paper in a clean room.
RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world 1 day ago
They litterally gave information they were legally required to
E2EE stops them from being forced to turn over the emails themselves
Except it doesn’t, E2EE in browser is pointless, they send your browser the code that does the dycription, they can just as easily send your browser code that does decyption & uploads the contents to themselves.
Yes doing actual E2EE emails is harder because both ends need to use an email client and configure it to do encryption, but for amost all scenarios protonmail is no more technically secure than any other webmail provider.
Scenario Gmail protonmail Legally required to hand over your emails can comply can comply the next time you use the account Datacenter breach emails encrypted at rest emails encrypted at rest Persistent threat can read your emails requires code injection capability I think offering per-user encryption that makes it harder for the company to data mine your emails is good, I just wish people would stop believing companies selling you “secure solutions”.
In this case defendtheatlantaforest would have been more secure if they used any free email provider and GPG, yet there’s a cult-of-produce around protonmail as if it’s offering you a level of security that it can’t.
idlesheep@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
In fact, knowing that the only thing Proton was able to hand over was the credit card identifier is pretty solid proof that they in fact cannot access (and thus provide access to) your email and its contents.
If full anonimity is the goal then stick to crypto or cash payments, because credit card always leaves a trail.