Deep Dive into Proton Mail

Another setting you shouldn't ignore. Here you can change your password, edit your display name and switch on two-password mode.

What's two-password mode?

Proton quote the following on their website:

Two-password model.If your account is in one-password mode, it is also possible to switch to two-password mode. Having two unique passwords boosts your account’s security. However, we still recommend one-password mode for most users.In two-password mode, you will be asked to set a login and mailbox password separately. The first login password is used to verify the identity of the user. The second password is a decryption (mailbox) password that Proton Mail does not have access to. It is used to decrypt data on your device; we do not have access to the decrypted data or your decryption (mailbox) password.This also means we cannot hand over your data to third parties or perform a mailbox password recovery. If you forget your mailbox password, we will not be able to recover your data.

Other features

• Two-factor authentication, using an app or security key. (I use a security key as it's the most secure way to protect an online account)
• Delete your account - A very dangerous feature, DO NOT play around here unless you really want to delete everything. Nothing can be recovered.

Here you can select from a small number of themes and edit your accessibility settings.

Proton Sentinel

Proton Sentinel is an advanced account protection program powered by sophisticated AI systems and specialists working around the clock to protect you from bad actors and security threats.

Public figures, journalists, executives, and others who may be the target of cyber attacks are highly encouraged to enable Proton Sentinel. You can read more on Proton's Website. I couldn't think of a reason not to activate it!

Dark Web Monitoring

Proton will monitor the dark web for instances where your personal information (such as an email address or password used on a third-party site) is leaked or compromised. How does monitoring work?

Proton never shares your information with third parties. Data comes from Proton's own analyses and Constella Intelligence. Support for monitoring of custom domains and non-Proton email addresses is coming soon.

Again, I couldn't think of a reason why you wouldn't want to activate this.

Session management, Security events & Privacy and data collection

Here you can manage your login sessions and remove some or all with a click of a button. You can also see your accounts security events, like failed logins etc. Data collection is where you have the option to share crash and diagnostics information with Proton.

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The guys and gals at Proton have tried to make switching to them as easy as possible. Using their email import feature you can automatically import all your emails from Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook and other IMAP services. You can also import calendar ICS files and contacts CSV or a VCF (vCard) file.

I used this feature when moving from Gmail and it worked a treat.

There is also a Set up forwarding from Gmail to Proton Mail feature that walks you though setting this up in your Gmail account.

I mainly use the web app but you can download desktop Proton Mail apps for Mac, Windows and even Linux. And Mobile apps for iPhone and Android.

I use the app on my iPhone & iPad and love it, it works perfectly and is as sleek and as idiot proof as the web versions. I have since uninstalled the native Mail app on both devices as I have forwarded all existing emails to my @proton.me address.

There are a ton of settings available, too many to cover in detail, but they include the standard options you'd expect from any email provider. The key ones I’ll highlight are:

Daily email notifications - If enabled, Proton will send an alert to your recovery email address if you have new messages in your Proton Mail account.

Proton Scribe writing assistant - This is Proton's integrated AI called Scribe Writing Assistant, but if I am honest, I haven't really used this feature. Mainly because I tend to send short emails, so don't really need assistance with composing/replying to emails. I do like the idea of it though. You do have the options of switching the AI on or off and selecting if you want it to run on device or server. If you want to run it locally you have to make a one time download and have a compatible device. The server options notes that it's fast and secure, with no logs kept.

For those who prefer a different layout for your inbox and email composer, there are also several page layout options available.

Privacy first as always, Proton gives you the option to block remote images from automatically loading when you open your emails. You can also block tracking beacons, so marketing companies can't see if and when you open their email.

This is a favourite feature for me and it's also an eye opener to how many companies are tracking you. Proton will show you in the header of the email how many tracking beacons it's disabled on each individual email.

None of these options are enforced though, you can switch them on and off according to your own preference.

This is the place you can setup your display name and signature. You can assign a different one to each of your email aliases, which is good if you have a different one for business and personal, or run multiple businesses.

If your subscription includes additional alias addresses, this is where you set them up. For example, Jon@yourdomain.com and sales@yourdomain.com

You can compose your email replies from any of the alias names.

Your default email address can also be set within this area too.

Creating folders and labels is really all you can do in this section. With a couple of additional settings relating to folder colours & the ability to reorder labels to your preferred order. The jury is still out for me about using both folders and labels as some traditionalists will prefer folders only, myself, I like labels as you can attach multiple labels to a single email.

There are three ways you can filter emails.

1. Adding senders to the Block List and Allow Lists, so that they are always or never put into the spam folder This can be done on the fly when viewing the email or you can manually add addresses and whole domains via the filters section discussed here.
2. Create custom filters using Proton Mail’s interactive interface. I've set a few and it's easy to use. As an example you can set a filter so that all emails received to a certain email aliases are automatically labeled and moved to a separate folder. Or star ⭐ certain messages automatically.
3. Create a Sieve filter (advanced) - Never used this function but will have a play and maybe write a post in the future about it.
   
   Sieve is a programming language designed for filtering emails. You can write straightforward rules, such as "Apply a green label to all messages from Kyle." By combining multiple rules, you can build a highly effective email filtering system.

Email forwarding, or auto-forwarding, allows you to automatically send emails received in your Proton Mail account to any other email address. You can also set conditions on forwarding your emails for more precise control.

I don't use this feature but I love the fact you can set forwarding conditions. This could be a very handy feature for some people.

Enable automatic replies to notify senders that you're out of the office or temporarily unable to respond. Unlike some other auto-reply features I have used, Proton Mail includes a few advanced options too, like repeat daily, weekly, monthly, as well as fixed duration or permanently on.

You will only have access to the feature if your subscription includes custom domains. I've added two of mine and the process was fairly straight forward.

Simply add the domain and then copy and paste the displayed entries into your DNS. I use CloudFlare to host all my domains DNS, and it took only a few minutes for the 2 domains I added to be verified and made live.

Activating Catch-all address is done from here too. If you use a custom domain with Proton Mail, you can configure a catch-all email address to receive messages sent to your domain, even if the email address is invalid due to typos or errors.

Proton Mail takes care of most things right out of the box. All Proton to Proton emails are automatically end to end encrypted, and for non Proton users you can add a password to the email, which then creates end to end encryption. I think the average Joe won't have the knowledge or the need to explore these settings, but for those who do use PGP, I've included a little information below.

Prompt to Trust Key. When you receive an email from another Proton user and you don't have their trusted key saved in their contact, a banner will ask you if you want to enable trusted keys. Read more about Address Verification with Trusted Keys.

Verify keys with Key Transparency BETA. Key Transparency for email is an exciting new security feature in Proton Mail, powered by blockchain technology.

Proton Mail, by design, safeguards your electronic communications with robust end-to-end encryption (E2EE). This security feature is automatically activated whenever you send an email to another Proton Mail user. The process is quite straightforward and relies on the principles of public-key cryptography.

Here's a step-by-step breakdown of how it works:

1. Each Proton Mail user is issued a pair of cryptographic keys, one private and one public. These keys are unique to each user and play a crucial role in the encryption and decryption process.
2. When you compose an email and select a Proton Mail user as the recipient, your Proton Mail app initiates a secure communication with Proton's servers. The purpose of this interaction is to retrieve the recipient's public key.
3. Once your app has obtained the recipient's public key, it proceeds to encrypt the message you've written. This is done using the recipient's public key, ensuring that only the recipient's private key can decrypt the message.
4. The encrypted message is then sent to the recipient's Proton Mail app. Upon receipt, the app uses the recipient's private key to decrypt the message, making it readable only to the intended recipient.

This process ensures that even if someone were to intercept the email during transmission, they would not be able to read its contents, as they would not possess the private key required for decryption. This is what makes end-to-end encryption such a powerful tool for protecting digital communications

If you want extra peace of mind, especially in sensitive situations, you can verify that you're using the right public key for your contact.

External PGP settings

Only change these settings if you are using PGP with non-Proton recipients.

Sign external messages. Automatically sign all your out going email messages so users can authenticity of your messages.

Attach public key, Enables this option will attach your public PGP key to every outgoing email you send. Recipients can then check the authenticity of your email and also send encrypted messages to you.

Default PGP scheme is also set here, plus you can generate/import a new key. And export both private and public keys to use with other PGP-compatible services.

I'm content with using Proton Mail via their web app and mobile apps, but for those who prefer a desktop email client like Outlook, don't despair, you can still achieve this by using The Proton Mail Bridge. Using the Proton Mail Bridge you can use Proton Mail with any desktop email client that supports IMAP/SMTP, including Outlook, Apple Mail, and Thunderbird.

Available on Windows, macOS and Linux, and available to all paid customers at no additional cost.

Proton have a very good in depth explanation on Proton Mail Bridge, read here. But in basic terms it's just an app that allows end-to-end encryption on popular email apps like Outlook, Thunderbird, and Apple Mail. It's secure email made simple!

SMTP submission lets third-party services or devices send emails through Proton Mail using your custom domain addresses. This feature is available to Proton for Business users with custom domains as well as with Proton Family and Mail Essentials.

Essentially, this feature allows your other business applications to send authenticated messages from your Proton Mail address(es).

Proton Mail Export Tool

The Proton Mail Export Tool allows you to export decrypted emails from your Proton Mail account to your local device. Once exported, you can view the messages or import them into another email account or client. It's available for macOS, Windows, and Linux.