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Mailfence

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Mailfence
Logo of Mailfence
Screenshot of Mailfence website, showing the user's inbox.
Type of site
Webmail
Available inEnglish, Spanish, French, German, Dutch and Portuguese
OwnerContactOffice Group
Created by
  • Patrick De Schutter
  • Arnaud Huret
URLmailfence.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationRequired
Launched12 November 2013; 11 years ago (2013-11-12)
Current statusOnline
Content license
Proprietary

Mailfence is an encrypted email service that offers OpenPGP based end-to-end encryption and digital signatures. It was launched in November 2013 by ContactOffice Group, which has been operating an online collaboration suite for universities and other organizations since 1999.[2]

History

In the midst of 2013, the Mailfence project was started by the founders of ContactOffice. In March 2016, the company released the public BETA version of their end-to-end encryption and digital signatures for emails.[3]

Features

Mailfence provides secure email features, with other functions such as Calendar, Contacts, Documents and Collaboration.[4]

Email

The service supports POP/IMAP and Exchange ActiveSync[5] as well as vanity domains with SPF, DKIM, DMARC[6] and catch-all address support.[7][8] Users can send both plain and rich text emails, organize messages in folders and/or categorize them with tags, set default message signatures, create aliases and use plus addressing[9] to apply filters to inbound messages.

Contacts

The contacts support (CSV, vCard, LDIF) import, (vCard, PDF) export and can be accessed using CardDAV.[10] Users organize them with tags and can also create contact lists.

Calendar

The calendar supports vCal/iCal import, export and can be accessed by using CalDAV.[11] Users can share their calendars with group members and can also create polls.[12]

Documents

The documents can be accessed using WebDAV or edited online. Users can drag and drop files in folders and categorize them with tags.[13]

Groups

Groups allow users to share mailboxes, documents, contacts, calendars and perform instant chatting with group members in a secure way. A group administrator manages the access rights of group members and can also set another group member as co-admin or the main admin of the group.[14][15]

Web-based clients

The web-interface comes with an embedded IMAP, POP3, CalDAV, and WebDAV client. Users can add external accounts and manage them centrally in the web-interface.[16][17]

User management

Account owners can create and manage users using the admin console.[18]

Server location

Since their servers are located in Belgium [19], they are legally outside of US jurisdiction. Mailfence is therefore not subjected to US gag orders and NSLs, notwithstanding extradition treaties with the US [20] [21]. Under Belgian law, all national and international surveillance requests must go through a Belgian court.[22]

Security and Privacy

Aside from conventional security and privacy features including TFA,[23] spam protection, sender address blacklisting and whitelisting, Mailfence offers following features:

End-to-end encryption

The service uses an open-source implementation of OpenPGP (RFC 4880).[24] Private keys are generated in the client-browser, encrypted (via AES256) with the user's passphrase, and then stored on the server.[25][26] The server never sees the user's passphrase. The service also supports end-to-end encryption using passwords with the possibility of message expiration.[27]

Digital signatures

The service gives the choice between "signing", or "signing and encrypting" an email message with or without attachments.[28]

Integrated Keystore

The service provides an integrated Keystore to manage PGP keys,[29] and does not require any third-party add-on/plugin. OpenPGP keypairs can be generated, imported or exported.[30] Public keys of other users can be imported through file or in-line text or can be downloaded directly from Public key servers.[31]

Full OpenPGP interoperability

Users can communicate with any OpenPGP compatible service provider.[32]

Warrant Canary and Transparency report

The service maintains an up-to-date transparency report and warrant canary.[33][34]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Alexa.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
  2. ^ "ContactOffice launch and users".
  3. ^ "BETA launch of a pure end-to-end encrypted email solution that gives you full control". Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  4. ^ Leonard, John. "Escape from Yahoo: Nine encrypted email alternatives". Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  5. ^ Skjefstad, Vegard. "Secure and Private E-mail: A Provider Overview". Retrieved 1 August 2015.
  6. ^ "Spoofing defense for Custom domains: SPF, DKIM, DMARC". Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  7. ^ "Privacytools.io is a socially motivated website that provides information for protecting your data security and privacy". Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  8. ^ "Mailfence Release Notes Dec 2017". Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  9. ^ "Plus addressing to filter email". Retrieved 18 October 2016.
  10. ^ "Mailfence Contacts: a secure contact management software". Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  11. ^ "Mailfence Calendar: a secure online calendar to schedule, manage and track meetings & events". Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  12. ^ "Mailfence Polls: simple and secure meeting scheduler". Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  13. ^ "Mailfence Documents: secure file sharing, storage and collaboration". Retrieved 9 November 2017.
  14. ^ "Mailfence Groups: secure group collaboration". Retrieved 5 September 2017.
  15. ^ "Privacytools.io is a socially motivated website that provides information for protecting your data security and privacy". Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  16. ^ "How to encrypt email with Gmail and Outlook.com or any other provider". Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  17. ^ "POP3 vs IMAP vs Exchange ActiveSync. What's the difference?". Retrieved 22 September 2017.
  18. ^ "Manage your users with the mailfence admin console". Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  19. ^ "The Mailfence SSL/TLS Certificate". Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  20. ^ "United States Extradition Treaty with Belgium".
  21. ^ "Untied States Supplemental Extradition Treaty with Belgium".
  22. ^ "Mailfence privacy policy". Archived from the original on 18 July 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
  23. ^ Davis, Josh. "Two Factor Auth (2FA)". Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  24. ^ Sparrow, Elijah. "OpenTechFund/secure-email". Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  25. ^ "Mailfence end-to-end encryption and digital signatures". Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  26. ^ "The 3 Most Secure & Encrypted Email Providers Online". Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  27. ^ "Password encrypted messages based on symmetric encryption". Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  28. ^ Thomas, Mike. "A (mostly) In Depth Review of Mailfence". Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  29. ^ Schürmann, Dominik. "OpenPGP Email encryption. For all operating systems. Standing the test of time". Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  30. ^ Tschabitscher, Heinz. "Encrypted email services keep your messages private". Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  31. ^ "Mailfence's OpenPGP keystore gives full control over key management". Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  32. ^ "Encrypted email service providers". v. Archived from the original on 18 May 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  33. ^ "Transparency Report and Warrant Canary". Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  34. ^ "Service review". Retrieved 20 February 2019.
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