StartMail

Why are we so proud of our Dutch heritage? Simple, the Netherlands have been leaders in privacy protection for decades! We've had to abide by some of the strictest privacy laws in the world from the very beginning, and have been offering this world class protection to all of our users ever since! 😎

How OpenAI caved to the Pentagon on AI surveillance The law doesn't say what Sam Altman claims it does.

OpenAI claims that they kept important safety promises intact in their deal with the US Department of War. Inside sources say otherwise: https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/887309/openai-anthropic-dod-military-pentagon-contract-sam-altman-hegseth

New AI Data Leaks—More Than 1 Billion IDs And Photos Exposed Databases containing the personal information of individuals, including email IDs and photos, have been exposed in data leaks linked to two AI-powered services.

AI powered apps ID verification and photo editing have exposed over 1 billion records, including "national IDs, full names, addresses, phone numbers, and email": https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2026/02/19/new-ai-data-leak-alert-1-billion-ids-emails-and-phone-numbers-exposed/

The image features a testimonial from a StartMail user. The text reads: "I totally agree with StartMail being a 'closed source' system, along with using the service through a browser and keeping everything locked up in private User Vaults on your servers. I intend to promote StartMail wherever I can..." At the bottom, there is a StartMail logo and the username StartMail-User.

EVERYTHING about our platform and product is built with privacy and security at the forefront. This is why we do some things differently from others...certain products like apps carry a lot of hidden privacy and security risks, so we'd rather innovate slow and safely than put your data at risk!

US lawyers file privacy class action against Lenovo : Keep behavioral tracking American? PC giant says the claim is 'false'

A U.S. law firm has filed a lawsuit accusing Lenovo of "bulk transfer of data to foreign adversaries, namely China": https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/17/lenovo_privacy_lawsuit/

What's your best response for when someone say "you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide"?

Both @tuta.com and @startmail.bsky.social are far safer bets for good email services who respect privacy, than Proton ever was.

Proton Mail Helped FBI Unmask Anonymous ‘Stop Cop City' Protester A court record reviewed by 404 Media shows privacy-focused email provider Proton Mail handed over payment data related to a Stop Cop City email account to the Swiss government, which handed it to the FBI.

Proton Mail has helped the FBI an anonymous protestor after turning over payment data related to their email account: https://www.404media.co/proton-mail-helped-fbi-unmask-anonymous-stop-cop-city-protestor/

To understand our commitment to privacy, you'll have to go back to our beginnings as a private search engine. Once we saw how much data was being gathered on our users, we knew something had to be done, and we've been leading the charge for user privacy every since!

The Trump administration is building a website to help Europeans evade content bans The 'Freedom.gov' site could also come with built-in VPN capabilities to mask user locations

The Trump administration is building a website to help citizens from the EU and elsewhere evade their local content bans: https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/the-trump-administration-is-building-a-website-to-help-europeans-evade-content-bans

Police are finding suspects based on their online searches as courts weigh privacy concerns Criminal investigators hoping to develop a suspect are turning to a powerful cyber tool by asking Google to disclose who had been searching for relevant information.

Police across the globe are using keywords in people's search histories to identify potential suspects, a method that has privacy advocates concerned: https://apnews.com/article/google-reverse-keyword-search-privacy-c5a0bc6f3790213f92e78aae720d2379

Actually, our we've made it so out webmail can install as a PWA on a mobile device! It should offer to install automatically, but if you need help...our support team is always there to help!

Peter Thiel and other tech billionaires are publicly shielding their children from the products that made them rich | Fortune As governments race to restrict minors' social media use, the tech billionaires who built the platforms are imposing strict screen limits at home.

Tech billionaires and founders are shielding their children from the very platforms and products that made them rich: https://fortune.com/2026/02/21/peter-thiel-bill-gates-steve-jobs-steve-chen-tech-billionaires-publicly-shielding-their-children-from-tech-products-social-media/

Cartoon character wearing glasses and a paper bag over their head stands next to text. The text reads, "Myth: All private email providers are pretty much the same..." The StartMail logo is visible at the bottom.

There are certain things that any private email provider should offer: strong encryption by default, a robust infrastructure...but only one offers custom support and unlimited aliases to EVERY user, even free trial users. And you can probably guess which one that is... 😉

Meta Adding Facial Recognition to Its Smart Glasses That Identifies People in Real Time, Hoping the Public Is Too Distracted by Political Turmoil to Care Emboldened by the success of its smart glasses, Meta is working on a way to release a controversial facial recognition feature to the public.

Meta is reportedly looking to roll out facial recognition capabilities to their smart glasses during this "dynamic political environment" when privacy groups might be "focused on other concerns,": https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/meta-facial-recognition-glasses

What's your best response for when someone say "you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide"?

Why you should beware of ChatGPT’s AI caricature trend Images uploaded to AI chatbots could be retained for an unknown amount of time and, if in the wrong hands, could lead to impersonation, scams, and fake social media accounts.

Experts warn that using ChatGPT's AI caricature feature, or any other similar one, could be "a gift to fraudsters" looking to steal from or impersonate you: https://www.euronews.com/next/2026/02/14/chatgpts-ai-caricature-social-media-trend-could-be-a-gift-to-fraudsters-experts-warn

EU Parliament blocks AI tools over cyber, privacy fears AI features on EU devices sent data to cloud, prompting the Parliament’s IT support to switch them off.

The European Parliament has disabled AI features on the work devices of lawmakers and their staff, citing cybersecurity and data protection concerns: https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-parliament-blocks-ai-features-over-cyber-privacy-fears/

When it comes to privacy, where you come from matters. Since we're from the Netherlands, we've not only been under some of the strictest privacy rules in the world since the beginning, and we extend those protections to EVERY customer around the world!

Google says hackers are abusing Gemini AI for all attacks stages Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) has published a new report warning about AI model extraction/distillation attacks, in which private-sector firms and researchers use legitimate API access to systematically probe models and replicate their logic a...

Google has admitted that state sponsored hackers from countries like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are using their Gemini AI model to support "all stages" of their cyberattacks: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-says-hackers-are-abusing-gemini-ai-for-all-attacks-stages/

Het is niet ideaal... dit soort problemen ontstaan ​​wanneer een betaalmethode alleen in één land werkt, terwijl ons afrekenproces voor gebruikers over de hele wereld moet functioneren. We staan ​​open voor suggesties ter verbetering, dus als u ideeën heeft, hoor ik het graag!

Gebruikers die extra bescherming nodig hebben, kunnen IMAP gebruiken om hun account te koppelen aan een e-mailclient die extra versleuteling van data in rust biedt. We willen ervoor zorgen dat elke gebruiker zijn of haar account kan beschermen op een manier die het beste bij de eigen workflow past!

Geen enkele e-mailprovider biedt volledige end-to-end-versleuteling. In ons geval worden de inbox en contacten van elke gebruiker bewaard in een versleutelde kluis die alleen toegankelijk is na inloggen. Gebruikers hebben bovendien PGP- of wachtwoordbeveiliging om uitgaande berichten te versleutelen

Your Discord Data Is Being Sold to Law Enforcement and AI Companies According to 404Media, a company called Spy Pet is scraping Discord servers and selling the data to law enforcement, AI companies, and anyone who wants it—so long as they pay in cryptocurrency.

If you use Discord, your activity in both public messages and voice channels might have been scraped and sold to AI companies and law enforcement agencies for as little as $5: https://lifehacker.com/tech/discord-data-sold-to-ai-and-law-enforcement

A digital graphic features a speech bubble with the text: "Browser fingerprinting... Most don't know how it works, and don't even regularly delete cookies on their browsers at the very least." Below the quote is the handle "@sandworm_cc on X." In the bottom right corner, a cartoon character with a paper bag over their head is shown and a star can be seen in the top left corner. The StartMail logo is at the bottom.

A digital graphic features a speech bubble with the text: "Your phone holds more personal data than anything else - and it's the weakest point in your stack.... On stock iOS/Android, any app can access motion sensors without permission [and] track when you pick it up, walk, drive, etc." Below the quote is the handle "@hacer_bark on X." In the bottom left corner, a cartoon character with a paper bag over their head is shown. The StartMail logo is at the bottom.

A digital graphic features a speech bubble with the text: "I would get data brokers up there! Shady, shady business. Most people aren't even aware of their existence. No need to click a link, we're screwed without doing a thing." Below the quote is the handle "@maique on X." In the bottom right corner, a cartoon character with a paper bag over their head. The StartMail logo is at the bottom.

A digital graphic features a speech bubble with the text: "Email is the #1 crown jewel in your identity profile. Don't talk about email security if you're not using separate inboxes for finance, work, and recovery." Below the quote is the handle "@Cortesal on X." In the bottom left corner, a cartoon character with a paper bag over their head is shown. The StartMail logo is at the bottom.

We asked our users their thoughts on what they considered the most underrated privacy threat that people don't know about. Truth be told, it was hard to pick a singular best answer, since each of these answers makes SUCH good points...so take note!

Ghanem al-Masarir: I mocked the Saudi leader on YouTube - then my phone was hacked and I was beaten up in London Satirist Ghanem al-Masarir has been awarded £3m in damages, but it's unclear if Saudi Arabia will pay.

A YouTuber had his phone hacked and was then publicly stalked and attacked in the streets of London after he publicly criticized the Saudi royal family: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj6w3zgden0o

Greece to soon announce social media ban for children under 15, government source says Greece is "very close" to announcing a social media ban for children aged under 15, a senior government source told Reuters on Tuesday.

Greece will be the next country to announce a social media ban for children, according to government sources: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/society-equity/greece-soon-announce-social-media-ban-children-under-15-government-source-says-2026-02-03/

Does the idea of moving your ENTIRE email presence to a new address sound intimidating? You can always start by using our email encryption to protect your most private messages first...like with your doctor or your bank! We promise, once you start, you'll want to use us for ALL of your messages.

We kunnen alleen bepaalde betalingen aanbieden aan gebruikers in bepaalde landen, daarom zet onze website het soms een beetje vaag. Maar ons ondersteuningsteam kan altijd elke preciezere vraag beantwoorden die u heeft!

Betaalmethoden StartMail accepteert verschillende betaalmethoden, waaronder anonieme betaalmethoden.Geaccepteerde betaalopties Visa Mastercard American ExpressCadeaubonnen zijn over het algemeen niet geautorisee...

Correct! iDEAL is een beschikbare betaalmethode voor gebruikers in Nederland... support.startmail.com/hc/nl/articl...