ProtonMail & Secure Communications - how can anonymity be ensured if custom domain is linked to the account?

Water Cooler Talk
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Hi all,

I already have a ProtonMail account to secure my email communications and anonymity. Recently, I’ve started to consider moving to a paid subscription to

  1. More storage space and features
  2. Support their mission of privacy

One of the features available in the paid plans is the ability to link a custom domain. This got me thinking.

How am I supposed to keep my identity anonymous if the domain registry is public? Even with options to redact certain information from public view, domain registrars can be compelled to provide information to the government on who the owner is, right?

So my question is

  1. Should I upgrade to ProtonMail paid plan?
  2. Should I link it to a custom domain?
  3. Can I buy a domain from a registrar based out of countries with strict privacy laws?
  4. Any recommendations for (3) and any other alternatives for ProtonMail?

Thanks a lot.

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Pretty much boils down to your choice, they provide a decent service… other questions’ answers may help you decide.

The biggest benefit of custom domain is control. You can stop using protonmail and switch to some other service tommorow if they go rogue without changing your email address, the registry charges and privacy concerns are the costs involved.

There are quite a lot of dns registrars who have strict privacy if you can pay in international currency(which even protonmail needs). For basic needs something like gandi.net may be sufficient… If you really want to get away without giving any details Njalla(Though I would recommend against them) is an option but the only thing they clearly state is they own the domain due to ICANN regulations. So ultimately, they could take it over I presume, if they hypothetically wanted. Finally you can use PO box and masked contact info if you are really paranoid.

I personally use Tutanota as they have F-droid apps and do not participate in black friday marketing you must note that they don’t support PGP and use custom(mostly better) encryption. This guide may help you decide. If you can use PGP in your mail client, you can probably get any email address from a privacy respecting service(not Gmail or Outlook ofcourse) but since most of your senders won’t use PGP the zero knowledge encryption proton and tuta offer may be useful…

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I’m greatly indebted for the fantastic response. Thanks a lot for taking time out to do this. Tutanota looks interesting.

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