Protect privacy starting with email

Encrypted Email Signups Skyrocketed After Trump Victory.

Donald Trump said US has to get better when it comes to “the cyber,” and it’s clear that many Americans are taking that advice to heart. They’re signing up for secure, encrypted email accounts like never before. ProtonMail is one of the providers of free and low-cost tools that anyone can use to boost their digital privacy.

ProtonMail's scientists, engineers, and developers drawn together by a shared vision of protecting civil liberties online. This is why they created ProtonMail, an easy to use secure email service with built-in end-to-end encryption and state of the art security features. The goal is to build an internet that respects privacy and is secure against cyberattacks.

They are committed to developing and widely distributing the tools necessary to protect your data online. The team combines deep mathematical and technical knowledge from the world's top research institutions with expertise in building easy to use user interfaces. Together, they are building the encrypted communication technologies of the future.

End-to-End Encryption

Messages are encrypted at all times

Messages are stored on ProtonMail (PM) servers in encrypted format. They are also transmitted in encrypted format between PM servers and user devices. Messages between PM users are also transmitted in encrypted form within PM secure server network. Because data is encrypted at all steps, the risk of message interception is largely eliminated.

Zero Access to User Data

Your encrypted data is not accessible to ProtonMail

ProtonMail’s segregated authentication and decryption system means logging into a ProtonMail private email account requires two passwords. The first password is used to verify the identity of the user. After that, encrypted data can be retrieved. The second password is a decryption password which is never sent to ProtonMail. It is used to decrypt data on your device so PM do not have access to the decrypted data, or the decryption password. This means PM cannot hand over your data to third parties. For this reason, PM are also unable to do decryption password recovery. If you forget your decryption password, PM cannot recover your data.

Open Source Cryptography

Time-tested and trusted encryption algorithms

PM use only secure implementations of AES, RSA, along with OpenPGP. Furthermore, all of the cryptographic libraries PM use are open source. By using open source libraries, PM can guarantee that the encryption algorithms PM are using do not have clandestinely built in back doors. ProtonMail's open source software has been thoroughly vetted by security experts from around the world to ensure the highest levels of protection.

Why Switzerland?

A question often get asked is, Why is ProtonMail based in Switzerland and are there any real advantages?
PM believes there are. The first thing that comes to mind is that Switzerland is outside of US and EU jurisdiction. Unless you host your servers on a boat in international waters, you will need to be under some legal jurisdiction and in the post-Lavabit environment, this choice is particularly important. A common misconception is that the EU offers more legal protection than the US, but many of the same surveillance directives that exist in US law also have EU counterparts, in particular, German law may actually offer less legal protection than American law.

Switzerland however, is NOT part of the EU, and Switzerland applies a very different set of privacy laws. In the US and EU, gag orders can be issued to prevent an individual from knowing they are being investigated or under surveillance. While these type of orders also exist in Switzerland, the prosecutors have an obligation to notify the target of surveillance as soon as possible, and the target has an opportunity to appeal in court. There are no such things as National Security Letters and all surveillance requests MUST go through the courts (this is not the case in Germany). Furthermore, while Switzerland is party to international assistance treaties, such requests for information must hold up under Swiss law which has much stricter privacy provisions.

Nearly every country in the world has laws governing lawful interception of electronic communications. In Switzerland, these regulations are set out in the Swiss Federal Act on the Surveillance of Postal and Telecommunications Traffic (SPTT) last revised in 2012. In the SPTT, the obligation to provide the technical means for lawful interception is imposed only on Internet access providers, so ProtonMail, as a mere Internet application provider, is completely exempt from the SPTT’s scope of application. This means that under Swiss law, ProtonMail cannot be compelled to backdoor PM secure email system. As a Swiss company, ProtonMail also cannot be compelled to engage in bulk surveillance on behalf of US intelligence agencies.

This combination of factors means that a Lavabit like situation cannot occur with ProtonMail. However, ProtonMail has taken the Lavabit concept one step further and actually does not even possess the keys required to decrypt user data. As a result, even if ProtonMail was forced to turn over all PM computer systems, email contents will continue to be encrypted.

PM believe that comprehensive security can only be achieved through a combination of technology and legal protections and Switzerland provides the optimal combination of both. By coupling Switzerland advanced IT infrastructure with its unique legal environment, ProtonMail can deliver a service that is both reliable and secure.

For more information about internet surveillance in Switzerland and requests for information made to ProtonMail, please view PM Transparency Report.

Email Marketing Done Right

Email marketing is a powerful, cost-effective and flexible way of marketing a business. If done right, you can attract customers, increase sales, spread brand awareness, generate leads, and save time while reducing marketing cost. A lot of people have an email address, and because of technology, most of consumers can read their emails directly from their mobile phones. This gives email marketing a wide reach.

It is easy to create an email about your business and send them out, but how effective is it? Because you are marketing your business, you want to make sure that people will open, read, and contact you after reading the email. Email marketing is a powerful marketing tool and you want it to be effective to ensure that all efforts return by means of reaching your goal.

There are a lot of ways on how to make email marketing work for you. You need patience and strategy like taking time to write the right content, building a list of target customers, and timing when and how to send your email.

Here are some tips on how to make email marketing work for you:

The Email Content & Design – You want people to read and know more about what you are marketing. Before you can do this, you have to make sure that your content is designed to engage a reader. What you can do is create magazine-like content instead of the normal email format. Add videos and links in your content; make it creative so the person who is looking at your email does not delete it right away. Keep them engaged and give them teasers of articles of what they can find on your website.

Adding active links to your content will also increase your reader’s interest. Make it easy for them to find and learn more about what you are marketing. According to HubSpot, placing the right amount of links on your content will give a higher clickthrough rate. Placing a lot of links in your content will also decrease the unsubscribe rate. Don’t forget to add link tracking on your content because this gives you an idea on the effectiveness of your email.

Make sure that your content is mobile friendly. A lot of people are opening their emails on their smartphones and when they do, this might be the only chance you get with them. It is important that you give them the right impression. Choosing the right subject line is crucial because you want your recipient to open your email. Use subject lines like Posts, Jobs, Survey, and E-newsletter rather than Confirm, Features, Magic, and Raffle.

The List – once you are sending the right email, you start building a list of subscribers. It is important that you manage your list of subscribers by sending them news about your business. Track your emails and watch those that bounce and try to reconnect with them through Twitter or LinkedIn. This will give your subscribers a sense that you value their interest in your business. Start conversations or direct them to your social sites like Twitter or Facebook.

How and When to Send – now it is time to choose the right Email Service Provider (ESP) for your business. Choose a provider that will give you a high deliverability rate, provides reporting, reasonable price, and comes with high quality service. Once you have an ESP, the timing of sending your emails is crucial. According to HubSpot, the best times of the week to send emails are towards the weekend, from Friday to Sunday. These days show that readers are more engaged to look at your content than any other days of the week. Clickthrough rates are higher during these days and readers have more time to understand what you are marketing. In terms of time-of-day, clickthrough rates are highest during early morning and drops to its lowest during the afternoon, then it rises up again as it approaches midnight.

Now that you have your content and you have an idea when to send it out to your readers, it is time to track your email’s success. Look at your email metrics and study how many of your readers opened and clicked-through. You can also track your web metrics and study the traffic that goes to your website. Look at the stats and wait for feedback.

These are all essential in your email marketing success because you will be given an idea of how to improve your next email campaign. You will have an idea of what works for your readers and what topics have grabbed the most attention. Do not be afraid to experiment with topics and timing. And whatever happens, respect your list of readers. In any business, you do your best to give your customers the sense of importance and your business will have a higher chance of succeeding.

Author:
Maria Elena Duron, is managing editor of the Personal Branding Blog and CEO (chief engagement officer) of buzz2bucks.com – a word of mouth marketing firm.   She helps create connection, credibility, community and cha-ching through mobile marketing and social commerce around your brand. She is co-founder of#brandchat - a weekly Twitter chat focused on every aspect of branding.