Who wants to bet there are going to be people who think simply using the ProtonMail app means they have better privacy and security that Proton promises for Proton users?
I can see a case for why they did this but I’m personally divided on this functionality.
Maybe read the article first before making assumptions?
Breaking up with Gmail overnight and making the transition to a privacy-first email provider, however, might not seem so easy, because it means informing all of your contacts and updating your email across possibly dozens of other services. To make switching from Gmail easier, you can now send emails from your Gmail address directly inside Proton Mail.
Intresseting but i would like to add the warning that deleting your google account might be a bad idea. Even if you thibk you migrated everything you might have missed some acocunt and your gmail address might be important to gain access to delete older accounts elsewhere.
I did read the article. Like I said, I can see a case for it but I’m not sure if I like this.
I’m still confused about how this works. Will emails saved to my Proton account or still saved on Google’s servers? If it’s still saved by Google, how does one gain even a little bit of privacy? I think Outlook is also supported with this new feature?
Using Gmail from within Proton Mail does not solve some of the longstanding privacy issues with Gmail. Google is still reading every email received by your Gmail account, including any sensitive personal communications you might receive there.
Google still sees any email that’s sent to the gmail address.
You can avoid running Google’s mail clients on your machine I guess? The main point is making it easier to switch from Gmail to Proton: you can use ProtonMail for all your new accounts/contacts, but still read anything sent to your old gmail for anything that hasn’t been updated, all within ProtonMail’s clients.
No, just GMail for now.
So will the sent Gmail messages be saved on Proton too or not? What’s the difference between using Gmail in the browser and using Proton to send emails? I’m still lost.
My guess would be it works like forwarding, and it probably creates a new label in your proton account for said Gmail. And then you get the option from the drop down menu to send from the Gmail account directly from your proton account. If someone here has used that, let me know if I’m somewhat close in my assumption.
Yeah, I’m curious about this experience myself. I would love to get more details.
Based on my understanding, you’re using ProtonMail as an app to log in to Gmail, sort of like how Thunderbird can view your Gmail inbox and send e-mails for you.
This new feature allows you to check your Gmail inbox directly from Proton Mail, meaning you don’t need to go back to the Gmail app, which brings about several privacy benefits.
Proton strips trackers, ads and spam from your emails, giving you greater privacy compared to Gmail, which is basically adware. The Gmail app gathers an immense amount of data about you, and by Google’s own admission(new window), uses your approximate location to show you more relevant ads, all of which is prevented by switching to the Proton Mail app.
Google will no longer be able to use your email activity, such as which emails you read and engage with, to build a profile about you.
Proton doesn’t say in their announcement if they plan to use this integration as a step towards making PGP in Gmail easier to use. I’d be curious if anyone came across signs of this being in the works.
This connection with Gmail does suggest that Proton is confident enough about their UX to give all users a way to make side-by-side comparisons of their experience emailing within Gmail and through Proton.
From Removing SMS support from Signal Android:
The most important reason for us to remove SMS support from Android is that plaintext SMS messages are inherently insecure. They leak sensitive metadata and place your data in the hands of telecommunications companies. With privacy and security at the heart of what we do, letting a deeply insecure messaging protocol have a place in the Signal interface is inconsistent with our values and with what people expect when they open Signal.
Like @anon7180143 said, there’s definitely a use case for this but it can also have downsides. I’m sure most of us can think of non-techy people in our lives who could totally make the mistake of using Gmail within Proton Mail while thinking it’s more private because they opened the Proton branded app.
Boomers will sure fall for it.
Thanks but thanks no. IMHO Proton is as trustful as Google.
I was wondering this same thing. It would be cool if you used this to email a Proton/WKD user from your Gmail account it would PGP encrypt the message automatically. It would also be very cool if Proton users who email your Gmail account would get automatic E2EE as well if your Gmail is set up with Proton.
It could definitely be a good experience. I’m curious which option would be more appealing to Proton users:
- automatic E2EE for Proton users through Gmail, or
- the Proton client notifying a user that their Gmail recipient also uses Proton and offering to route the email directly.
The second option makes it much easier for Proton users to find each other despite only knowing each other’s Gmail address. Although I’m not enthused about Proton possibly giving out email addresses on their behalf.
As an aside, to think this is all possible because Proton (or others) can be Gmail clients. But the reverse can’t be (easily) done for Proton. I’m reminded by this of a recent Cory Doctorow book.