Re:Why ProtonMail is more secure than Gmail
by bigiain on Monday October 23, 2017 @08:03PM
(#15538051)
And sadly - if someone emails a PGP encrypted mail to a protommail address using a key the recipient knows but protonmail doesn't - it doesn't work. Protonmail gives an "unable to decrypt" error, and doesn't hand over the encrypted body...
For me - I think they're useful protecting against dragnet "full take" surveillance (especially since I'm a non-US citizen, so am considered "fair game" for warrantless surveillance), but I don't for a moment think they'll protect me from any sort of state actor level interest targeting me specifically (I'm still gonna get Mossad`ed upon...)
(In more paranoid moments, I suspect that the first "dragnet" protection quite probably makes the second "targeted interest in _me_" more likely...)
ProtonMail doesn't meaningfully address the mass surveillance aspect, though. Most emails still hit its servers in plain-text form. Encrypting once it hits their server doesn't help the mass surveillance aspect, it only helps the targeted surveillance when a warrant comes in.
And if you're willing/able to get everyone that emails you to switch to PGP to get real end-to-end encryption then protonmail is worth even less, since none of their benefits matter anymore (google is obviously not able to decrypt your PGP emails, either).