Isolated Email Account

[nezuko.kamado]

I am very new to all this (meaning strong privacy and anonymity, tails, tor, etc.)

I hope I am not intruding, or posting inappropriately. First let me say that I am NOT repeat NOT wanting to do anything illegal, harmful, or even unethical. I just want privacy. I have my reasons, and I’ll leave it at that.

What I want is a truly isolated email account for which I do not have to provide ANY personally identifiable information that gets back to my real identity. Proton wants a real permanent “backup” email. Tutanota seems to be hostile to tor.

My Requirements:
– Hosted in a country with strict privacy laws and not one of the five eyes
– Tor-friendly, even better if they have a .onion service
– Only want to supply them with a userid and strong password. That’s it. No backup emails, no phone 2FA, none of that.
– A paid service is fine as long as I can use BTC, or even better XMR(monero)
– I am even willing to pay to set up my own domain, provided I can do it with the same isolation requirements as above)

Futher I’d like to know if anyone can recommend other forum sites where issues like mine (strong, isolated anonymity and privacy) are discussed.

Thanks so much for any help you can give.

[FranklyFlawless]

@nezuko.kamado

What I want is a truly isolated email account for which I do not have to provide ANY personally identifiable information that gets back to my real identity. Proton wants a real permanent “backup” email. Tutanota seems to be hostile to tor.

Tutanota accepts Tor Browser users creating email accounts with their service for free as in gratis: see this blog article for further details.

Anonymous email: Create an email address without a phone number.

@nezuko.kamado

My Requirements:
– Hosted in a country with strict privacy laws and not one of the five eyes
– Tor-friendly, even better if they have a .onion service
– Only want to supply them with a userid and strong password. That’s it. No backup emails, no phone 2FA, none of that.
– A paid service is fine as long as I can use BTC, or even better XMR(monero)
– I am even willing to pay to set up my own domain, provided I can do it with the same isolation requirements as above)

I have a shortlist of webmail providers that do not have secondary requirements and are free as in gratis, but they may or may not be hosted in the Five Eyes; I do not consider it in my threat model. Other than Tutanota, I have not tested the others for Tor-friendliness.

My specific testing criteria was: English; free tier without third-party invitation requirements and/or a trial period; no advertisements; no email address and/or phone number requirements for signup and/or service usage.

• MsgSafe.io
• Skiff
• Tutanota

There is also one more webmail provider that is highly likely to meet these requirements, but I have not tested them myself:

• Autistici/Inventati

Note that unlike your requirements, my focus was on free as in gratis, because I believe secure and private email should be available to everyone first; using them anonymously is an entirely separate issue that is very difficult to practically address.

@nezuko.kamado

Futher I’d like to know if anyone can recommend other forum sites where issues like mine (strong, isolated anonymity and privacy) are discussed.

Other than the Tor Project, I know and am personally involved in a few more related forums to varying degrees:

• Purism
• Qubes OS
• Whonix

[Eldalie]

I hope I am not intruding, or posting inappropriately.

I think you are quite off-topic here, the General Discussion category is still dedicated to “Anything related to Tor ecosystem which does not fit into the Support or Feedback category” (italics is mine).

Anyway…

What I want is a truly isolated email account for which I do not have to provide ANY personally identifiable information that gets back to my real identity

My Requirements:

I use Disroot. It’s from Netherlands (I don’t know about Dutch privacy law, but it’s not in the Five Eyes); has an onion service; supports backup email and TOTP 2FA but they are not mandatory; is free to use but accepts donations including BTC and XMR.

Disclaimer: I never used anything I’m going to write about below.

I also read intereseting stuff about Posteo but I never cared to study it in detail. It’s pay-only but accepts cash and doesn’t link the payment to the account.

– I am even willing to pay to set up my own domain, provided I can do it with the same isolation requirements as above)

Every domain name is linked to the real identity of the owner (it can be either published through WHOIS or not, but the register and registrar know it). The only way to buy a domain anonymously I am ware of is through Njalla, that registers it to itself and then lets you use it, but it feels quite shady to me. However, if you are to trust it you may purchase a domain name and a VPS and set up your own mail server, e.g. as described here.

[FranklyFlawless]

@Eldalie

I use Disroot. It’s from Netherlands (I don’t know about Dutch privacy law, but it’s not in the Five Eyes); has an onion service; supports backup email and TOTP 2FA but they are not mandatory; is free to use but accepts donations including BTC and XMR.

A verification email is mandatory to use the service; specifically, in step 4:

Step 4: Enter a verification email*

This email will be used during the verification process and will be removed once the account is created.

https://user.disroot.org/pwm/public/newuser

The last time I was testing their registration services, they also do not permit account creation during the weekends. I forgot their reasoning and exact quote for it, but perhaps that situation has changed since.

@Eldalie

The only way to buy a domain anonymously I am ware of is through Njalla, that registers it to itself and then lets you use it, but it feels quite shady to me.

Yes, that is indeed one of the anonymous domain registrars. The other one I also know about is IncogNET, as I was made aware of them by their Tor reduced exit policy.

Anonymous Domain Name Registration | IncogNET

[boldsuck]

@FranklyFlawless

A verification email is mandatory to use the service; specifically, in step 4:

Then simply use a disposable address for it:
trash-mail.com
trashmail.de

[Alexey104]

You can try danwin1210.de. It has onion and clearnet domains, supports mail clients and does not need any personal info from you - only login and password. But this is a volunteer project.

[FranklyFlawless]

@boldsuck

@FranklyFlawless

A verification email is mandatory to use the service; specifically, in step 4:

Then simply use a disposable address for it:
trash-mail.com
trashmail.de

I agree, but that would go against @nezuko.kamado’s third requirement:

@nezuko.kamado

– Only want to supply them with a userid and strong password. That’s it. No backup emails, no phone 2FA, none of that.

[boldsuck]

@FranklyFlawless

I agree, but that would go against @nezuko.kamado’s third requirement:

This is only for the one-time email for verification. He can later use his strong password on Disroot.
By the way, using only passwords is outdated. I use 2FA almost everywhere. All my weblogins, SSH keys, mail accounts, etc. require 2FA with OnlyKey or NitroKey.

[TorOps]

I think Disroot is a good option. It’s free, they’re based in Amsterdam, and it doesn’t collect your data. Personally, I use it. Riseup and Systemli are good options but they’re invite only, which makes it difficult to get an email address from them.