ProtonMail black friday is on!

[o_e_l_e_o]

Do we have any proof emails are actually encrypted end-to-end with man in the middle (protonmail) can't view them if they want?

A fair point. Their web interface has been open source for years. Recently their iOS app has been made open source, and the Android app will be following shortly. You can therefore confirm that your emails are being encrypted client side prior to being sent. Having said that, their server side code is not open source, and it would be pointless to make it open source since you could never confirm that the code you can see is the code they are running.

There will always be an element of trust when you use any service. You are trusting the manufacturers of your hardware, the programmers of your OS and browser, your ISP, and the forum, just to have this conversation. You will never be able to communicate over the internet and have your chance of interception be zero percent. Just because we can't reach 100% security, though, doesn't mean we should settle for the data-mining spyware that is Google.

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[bitmover]

but I can't seem to get this deal to activate in my currently "free" account?

You can, just use the promo coupon BF2019

[I just found this on Reddit from ProtonMail itself, posted 10 hours ago:

The promo hasn't been officially announced yet, there will be a blog post with details in about a week.

Another user said it's still not Black Friday, so I guess they will really do a black "friday" promotion, and not a "november" black friday like most companies do?

Yes, it looks like it wasn't officially announced yet. I was able to find it googling, but there may still some changes in a few days. Let's wait until November 29 which should be the Black Friday.

Mailfence is great alternative for ProtonMail
- It has Calendar integrated
- It accepts crypto payments with Bitcoin and Litecoin
- Free version is fine also
- You can connect virtual drive

https://mailfence.com/

The problem of using those less known mail services is that they could be dead in a few years/months. Protonmail looks well established already and it will probably last many years..

[dkbit98]

The problem of using those less known mail services is that they could be dead in a few years/months. Protonmail looks well established already and it will probably last many years..

Mailfence exists from 2013 (and 1999) and they are older than Protonmail
Many people including me are using it with no issue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mailfence

Proton mail is known to leak data before, and it is not safe in my opinion.

[GSpgh]

You can sign up to ProtonMail with no identifying details whatsoever. Even the recovery email address is optional. All you need to input is your desired username and password.

There is a "are you human" verification which requires email, SMS, or donation. The only donation options are PayPal and Credit Card (no BTC). Email option doesn't accept some email addresses I think my hotmail address was a no go. Yeah still have one of those.

That's for the free account. I don't know if the paid options let you in without being "human".

[o_e_l_e_o]

The last time I made a free account on ProtonMail I proved my human-ness by solving a captcha. Well, actually about 12 captchas, but that's Tor's fault, not theirs. If that option is no longer available, then just create a disposable email on one of the hundreds of temporary email websites which require no information whatsoever and use that.

You don't need to do that for the paid accounts, and you can pay using bitcoin.

[HCP]

I created a ProtonMail account last week and was able to do so using just the Captcha... I suspect that this is an "Evil IP"™ or "Evil Country"™ type situation where users in certain locations or IP ranges are unable to use the Captcha method and are forced to either pay or provide an email.

And I just checked now... and it still shows me the Captcha method as an option for "Are you human?":

You can, just use the promo coupon BF2019

When I attempt to use the coupon code "BF2019" (as extracted from the "get deal" URL), it ends up being way more expensive than using the "BUNDLE" code!!?!

Ummmm yeah...

[bitmover]

There is a "are you human" verification which requires email, SMS, or donation. The only donation options are PayPal and Credit Card (no BTC). Email option doesn't accept some email addresses I think my hotmail address was a no go. Yeah still have one of those.

That's for the free account. I don't know if the paid options let you in without being "human".

I am sorry, but EVERYTHING is wrong in this post.

There is a "are you human" verification which requires email, SMS, or donation.

The only thing needed is a username and a password. No SMS, no e-mail, no donation.

The only donation options are PayPal and Credit Card (no BTC).

They accept donation in bitcoin



I know you don't like protonmail, but spreading misinformation is not how you are going to promote alternative services.

You can, just use the promo coupon BF2019

When I attempt to use the coupon code "BF2019" (as extracted from the "get deal" URL), it ends up being way more expensive than using the "BUNDLE" code!!?!

Ummmm yeah...

I didn't know about this BUNDLE code. BF2019 is better than no code for me.

[TryNinja]

-snip-

That’s not what he is talking about. You can notice that after you put the email you want and your password, in the next screen you will need to verify you are not a bot by filling their captcha or depositing something (which will be available on your account). But they don’t accept BTC on that step.

And they do require a captcha, SMS, email verification or deposit for that (take a look at the post above yours, by HCP).

Try creating an email right now and you will see what we are talking about.

[bitmover]

And they do require a captcha, SMS, email verification or deposit for that (take a look at the post above yours, by HCP).

There is a "are you human" verification which requires email, SMS, or donation.

captcha is very different from the other ones, and it is available.

He said that we needed email sms or donation. That's a big difference. Because all of those can easily be tracked back to you, while the captcha is not so easy (compared to SMS or fiat donation).


And that's pretty undestandable, to require a captcha... image how many spammers would be creating infinite accounts.

[TryNinja]

He said that we needed email sms or donation. That's a big difference.

In some cases captcha isn’t available and you need to verify with one of these three options. I myself had to use my old Gmail account to create my PM account.

[HCP]

captcha is very different from the other ones, and it is available.

He said that we needed email sms or donation. That's a big difference. Because all of those can easily be tracked back to you, while the captcha is not so easy (compared to SMS or fiat donation)

That's the point...

It seems that for some users... the "captcha" option is NOT showing up... so their only options are SMS or donation. As I have theorised, I believe that this is a geolocation or ip-range related issue. Indeed... after going via TOR... I see this:



Clicking the "Why is this required?" link shows this:



So... it does seem to be an "Evil IP"™ issue.

[dkbit98]

So many issues for simple registration...
If you want to listen to me, skip using ProtonMail and try Mailfence for free.
Easy to register,  and I never had any issue so far.
If you want to pay for pro features, it is cheaper and you can do it with BTC or LTC

[mk4]

So many issues for simple registration...
If you want to listen to me, skip using ProtonMail and try Mailfence for free.
Easy to register,  and I never had any issue so far.
If you want to pay for pro features, it is cheaper and you can do it with BTC or LTC

There's a reason why ProtonMail has these registration hurdles. I've created countless emails through ProtonMail a year ago with no such problem as ProtonMail wasn't that big back then compared to today whereas I assume a lot of people are spam creating emails probably as an attack, or probably for people to use for malicious purposes hence they're forced to add these requirements. Once Mailfence gains the same size of a userbase, I won't be surprised if they did the same.

[BitcoinsGreat]

I created a ProtonMail account last week and was able to do so using just the Captcha... I suspect that this is an "Evil IP"™ or "Evil Country"™ type situation where users in certain locations or IP ranges are unable to use the Captcha method and are forced to either pay or provide an email.

And I just checked now... and it still shows me the Captcha method as an option for "Are you human?":

How an IP be evil unless you are not allowed to created multiple accounts ? And there should be no reason to avoid multi account creation from single IP. 
Also one of my friend tired the SMS option but single mobile number can be used only one time, unlike gmail where you can use a single mobile number to verify multiple accounts.
Same is the case with email. A single email can be used to verify a single protonmail account.

[HCP]

How an IP be evil unless you are not allowed to created multiple accounts ? And there should be no reason to avoid multi account creation from single IP. 

They explain it perfectly well when you are on a "bad" IP if you click the "Why is this required?" in my screenshot above:



You are allowed to create multiple accounts, but there is some sort of (unpublished AFAIK) limit to the number of accounts any given connection is allowed to make. After you reach that limit, then you're required to do the "extra" verification involving either emails/SMS/donation.

My guess is that people were abusing the Protonmail free accounts for spamming/scamming and Protonmail are attempting to prevent this by putting this restriction on "Bad IPs".

As pointed out in the message, it's quite possible that VPNs and/or TOR connections are causing issues for "legit" users, as those connections have been abused by spammers/scammers in the past. If you're getting this issue, try using a different connection, TOR exit node or VPN to create your protonmail... it's only an issue during the initial sign up... after that it doesn't matter what connection you use.

[o_e_l_e_o]

They have a blog post explaining it all here: https://protonmail.com/support/knowledge-base/human-verification/

Creating multiple accounts from the same IP makes it harder to verify accounts from that IP. Similarly, IPs associted with spamming or which are used to try to bruteforce or otherwise hack accounts also require harder verification methods.

If you only have the SMS or donate options available to you, then you can either try registering from a different IP as HCP has described above, you can try any of the burner phone numbers you can find via an internet search, or you can use bitcoin to pay for a plus account and then immediately downgrade it to a free account.

[GSpgh]

I am sorry, but EVERYTHING is wrong in this post.

Not a single thing was wrong in my post.

I know you don't like protonmail, but spreading misinformation is not how you are going to promote alternative services.

What alternative services am I promoting? Just saying that it's not as simple as some users said. I have two ProtonMail accounts and had to sacrifice some privacy to get them.

I was using Tor and as others said it looks like an IP abuse issue.

If that option is no longer available, then just create a disposable email on one of the hundreds of temporary email websites which require no information whatsoever and use that.

Tried a hotmail account didn't work. I don't remember the error message. Had to use a gmail account which being google of course knows everything about me.

If you only have the SMS or donate options available to you, then you can either try registering from a different IP as HCP has described above, you can try any of the burner phone numbers you can find via an internet search, or you can use bitcoin to pay for a plus account and then immediately downgrade it to a free account.

Online SMS things didn't work. Different Tor circuits didn't work. Paying and downgrading is a good idea. I didn't know a downgrade like that is possible.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Online SMS things didn't work. Different Tor circuits didn't work. Paying and downgrading is a good idea. I didn't know a downgrade like that is possible.

That sucks. I had no problem registering with ProtonMail via Tor, but I've had my free account for a couple of years so I guess spammers and abusers weren't so common back before it was a widely known and used service. Either that or I just got lucky with a relatively new Tor exit node.

If you log in to your account and go to "Settings" and then "Dashboard", you will see the options to upgrade or downgrade your account(s). You certainly get a discount if you upgrade before the end of your chosen plan, but I don't know if they refund you any unused time when downgrading. At the most you can pay $5 in bitcoin for a single month of plus then immediately downgrade.

There's some more info here: https://protonmail.com/support/knowledge-base/removing-your-addresses/

[magdaniewczas]

Hello all,

After having so many discussions about Privacy here in this board the past week, (specially TryNinja and o_e_l_e_o and some others) I decided to become a protonmail paid user.

It was hard to find, but it is live:
https://protonmail.com/blackfriday

5% discount.50% discount


The two year plan is about 0.009 Bitcoin (sadly, there is no discount for bitcoin payment method so far. Requested on reddit, let's see if they say anything, if anyone wanna comment there to help me, you are welcome). That's pretty reasonable, with 5GB drive.

There are two big problems for me, but I can live with them:
-Missing Calendar
-Missing a Driver app (could be web), like outbox or google drive.

Does anyone know a solution/turn around for those problems?

Yeah, proton has those offers all the time.

Does anyone really know who is behind proton, its not a honey pot?

[HCP]

Does anyone really know who is behind proton, its not a honey pot?

They seem pretty open about who they are and what they're doing: https://protonmail.com/about

Most of that information should be easily verifiable.