email server privacy

[mikefamig]

Is there any such thing as an email service that is any more private than another. I recently got notice that my att.net yahoo email service merged with aol to form "Oath". The terms of service agreement that they sent me pretty much says that I have no privacy and no rights to any information contained in my emails and texts and any other thing that they handle for me. It straight out says that they can examine the contents and share as they like.
 
Here is a quote from their "privacy policy"
 
"Oath analyzes and stores all communications content, including email content from incoming and outgoing mail.  This allows us to deliver, personalize and develop relevant features, content, advertising and Services."
 
To sum it up their privacy policy is that I have none.
 
Can anyone say that gmail or any other mail handler is any different?
 
Mike.

 

[pete_c]

Way back Verizon.net (FIOS) changed to AOL email.  I read that the changes related to making money off of email.
 
I still have a Yahoo email and Comcast email account but do not utilize them anymore.
 
I am OK these days with Microsoft (outlook), GMail and a paid service for Email. 
 
Thinking all of the free emails today mostly serve up advertisements / spam and there is no privacy anymore.
 
My paid for private email does OK today.

 

[ano]

AT&T LOL.  If you ever watched any of the Snowden movies you would learn it was AT&T that freely that let the NSA tap into the main Internet feeds of the U.S.  Nope they won't be guarding your privacy.  Try ProtonMail.  They and others encrypt your email, so they would have no way to read it even if they wanted to.  If you have Apple products, they are also known for guarding customer information. GMAIL has a mixed record. There are also some end-to-end encryption methods, and they are the safest, but a bit more work for both parties. 
 
Another thing you can do which may help is use encrypted DNS.  Use something like DNSCrypt. Its not the ultimate, but it does make it harder for ISPs to do some spying, and violate Net Neutrality.  I don't know if the "spys" have a way around it, but it probably makes it more difficult to spy, short of a VPN, which has many downsides.

 

[mikefamig]

On the topic of privacy - why should I trust a VPN service? I use the internet to log into financial institutes and government agencies like the SSA and DMV. How do I know that my login info and data will be safe with them?
 
Being that I don't trust my ISP, how is adding another company going to add to my comfort level? How are you all convinced that a VPN service will be trustworthy?
 
Mike.

 

[kwschumm]

Most encryption these days seems to use PGP. Recent news reports say that PGP has major holes that they don't know how to patch. Not sure of the details.
 
My theory is that any attempt to encrypt, in either hardware or software, will face government pressure (legal or otherwise) to insert exploitable back doors.