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Discussion => Security => Topic started by: darthvaderstar on September 14, 2013, 04:55 am

Title: what email to use?
Post by: darthvaderstar on September 14, 2013, 04:55 am
Tormail doesn't seem to be working for me, what other place is best for anonymity?
Title: Re: what email to use?
Post by: Nunya on September 14, 2013, 05:55 am
My current favorite is safe-mail.net.  Good privacy reputation, no JavaScript, available via TOR.  But encrypt using PGP - there's no E-Mail provider you can trust.
Title: Re: what email to use?
Post by: StaticTension on September 14, 2013, 08:28 am
There's also coutermail too if you don't mind paying. I think they're like $5/mth and based in sweden.
Title: Re: what email to use?
Post by: incogmagnito on September 14, 2013, 08:42 am
check out riseup.net - great ethos and very good service.
the advice on PGP is gold - nobody can be trusted, so encrypt everything, but do assume that not in a very far future it will be possible to read even that.
Be safe,
IM
Title: Re: what email to use?
Post by: StaticTension on September 14, 2013, 08:46 am
check out riseup.net - great ethos and very good service.
the advice on PGP is gold - nobody can be trusted, so encrypt everything, but do assume that not in a very far future it will be possible to read even that.
Be safe,
IM

That's terrible advice. They'll dime you out the moment they suspect anything illegal. You'd be better off using Yahoo and encrypt all your emails than use Riseup.
Title: Re: what email to use?
Post by: incogmagnito on September 14, 2013, 08:54 am
why, may I ask?
Title: Re: what email to use?
Post by: StaticTension on September 14, 2013, 11:16 am
Well for starters if you read the on their site:

Riseup provides online communication tools for people and groups working on liberatory social change. We are a project to create democratic alternatives and practice self-determination by controlling our own secure means of communications.

Disregard the fact that SR users and fans are striving for social change as well but in our own way but my point is that because of their goals they won't take lightly to people using their services for illegal purposes. There's been stories of them ratting out people. If they're so good why not use their VPN service as well? Would you feel confident putting your freedom in this groups hands keeping in mind their ideals in their eyes are polar opposites of ours? But in the end it's ultimately the persons choice but reading their about us page should give you a clearer representation of why they may not be the best email provider. As shitty as using Yahoo or Gmail it does have one advantage and that is the huge sums of emails that travel through their servers where as in Riseup has few and lesser users. Personally I would never use them but I came to that conclusion from things I've heard and reading the info on their site . I have no hard evidence per say.
Title: Re: what email to use?
Post by: incogmagnito on September 14, 2013, 03:06 pm
would be curious to learn those stories of riseup.net ratting people out. any links?

For me gmail or yahoo appear to be difficult choices as they must have some serious tracking system for accounts accessed via tor, if they even allow this access. riseup.net is more than happy to deal with tor users. and with VPN and SSL being allegedly cracked it leaves tor as the best channel, but I might be wildly off here - going on data released by Snowden and I am not 100% certain of it reliability.
Title: Re: what email to use?
Post by: ECC_ROT13 on September 14, 2013, 09:57 pm
What I like about Riseup is that they're up front about it.  From https://www.riseup.net/en/riseup-and-government-faq
Quote
Q: What about child porn, drugs, corruption, etc. Would you fight law enforcement requests for users doing these things?

A: Those things violate Riseup’s Terms of Service and, unlike some more “American Libertarian” service providers, we do not exist to provide privacy for doing anything you want. We would close the accounts of people doing those things and the collective may even decide to cooperate with law enforcement rather than set all the servers on fire and destroy the organization, and your email.

I've always heard good things about Riseup, and they provide a lot of digital services to people who are trying to make changes in the world.  But they're definitely smart enough to pick their battles.  And SR vendors/buyers aren't one of those battles.
Title: Re: what email to use?
Post by: tree on September 14, 2013, 10:45 pm
What about URSSmail? http://f3ljvgyyujmnfhvi.onion  It seems pretty good.
Title: Re: what email to use?
Post by: astor on September 14, 2013, 11:37 pm
check out riseup.net - great ethos and very good service.
the advice on PGP is gold - nobody can be trusted, so encrypt everything, but do assume that not in a very far future it will be possible to read even that.
Be safe,
IM

That's terrible advice. They'll dime you out the moment they suspect anything illegal. You'd be better off using Yahoo and encrypt all your emails than use Riseup.

They are also an American organization with servers in America. Same with Yahoo. If you really need a clearnet email provider, go with something hosted in Russia. Their government and intel agencies are much less likely to cooperate with Western LE. Yandex (mail.yandex.com) and Rambler (mail.rambler.ru) are good examples. Rambler's interface is in Russian, there is no English option, so you'll have to paste stuff into a translation service to figure out what you're doing, and both require JavaScript to use the webmail interface, but you should only need to use the web interface long enough to configure your desktop email client (Thunderbird + Enigmail + Torbirdy) to connect over Tor.

Obviously you should PGP encrypt all messages, so the point of hosting in Russia is to make access to your metadata more difficult.
Title: Re: what email to use?
Post by: astor on September 14, 2013, 11:39 pm
would be curious to learn those stories of riseup.net ratting people out. any links?

I don't know if they've ratted anybody out, but a server that was hosting one of their services (an anonymous remailer) was seized by the FBI.

https://help.riseup.net/en/seizure-2012-april

That's the problem with hosting in America.
Title: Re: what email to use?
Post by: Nightcrawler on September 15, 2013, 02:29 am
would be curious to learn those stories of riseup.net ratting people out. any links?

I don't know if they've ratted anybody out, but a server that was hosting one of their services (an anonymous remailer) was seized by the FBI.

https://help.riseup.net/en/seizure-2012-april

That's the problem with hosting in America.

Actually, the server was located in a colo facility that was used by both Riseup and other organizations. The mixmaster remailer that was seized was run by the ECN (European Counter Network), which operated (and still operates) the Cripto remailer.  The EFF chided the FBI in a press-release:

May 3, 2012 | By Hanni Fakhoury
UPDATE: With May First/Riseup Server Seizure, FBI Overreaches Yet Again
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/04/may-firstriseup-server-seizure-fbi-overreaches-yet-again

Nightcrawler
4096R/BBF7433B 2012-09-22 Nightcrawler <Nightcrawler@SR>
PGP Key: http://qtt2yl5jocgrk7nu.onion/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xB8F1D88EBBF7433B (IndyMedia .onion keyserver)
PGP Key: http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=174.msg633090#msg633090     (Silk Road Forums PGP Key Link)
PGP Key Fingerprint = 83F8 CAF8 7B73 C3C7 8D07  B66B AFC8 CE71 D9AF D2F0
Title: Re: what email to use?
Post by: incogmagnito on September 15, 2013, 07:14 am
thank you
Title: Re: what email to use?
Post by: Baraka on September 15, 2013, 08:17 am
bitmessage.ch is what I use. The hidden service is bitmailendavkbec.onion

You can use Thunderbird+TorBirdy+Enigmail to access your account. And I think it goes without saying to always use GPG with it.
Title: Re: what email to use?
Post by: astor on September 15, 2013, 08:23 pm
bitmessage.ch is what I use. The hidden service is bitmailendavkbec.onion

You can use Thunderbird+TorBirdy+Enigmail to access your account. And I think it goes without saying to always use GPG with it.

So you don't need to run BitMessage to use it? What's the point then? You're getting a shitty, unreadable email address on a clearnet server, when you could register a readable email address at another clearnet email provider.
Title: Re: what email to use?
Post by: Baraka on September 16, 2013, 02:05 am
You CAN run BitMessage with it if you want. Another thing is you're not at the whim of a large provider (like Yahoo or Yandex) one day just suddenly closing the accounts of those who use Tor which is almost guaranteed to happen. After that shit happening at Tormail I won't be going through it again. As for the address being "unreadable", I think if you're at the point where you're using GPG, Tor and hidden services then a quick copy and paste doesn't really matter now does it?  ;)