Hushmail is an encrypted proprietary web-based email service offering PGP-encrypted

e-mail Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...

and vanity domain service. Hushmail uses OpenPGP standards. If public encryption keys are available to both recipient and sender (either both are Hushmail users or have uploaded PGP keys to the Hush keyserver), Hushmail can convey authenticated, encrypted messages in both directions. For recipients for whom no public key is available, Hushmail will allow a message to be encrypted by a password (with a password hint) and stored for pickup by the recipient, or the message can be sent in cleartext. In July 2016, the company launched an

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

app that offers

end-to-end encryption End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a method of implementing a secure communication system where only communicating users can participate. No one else, including the system provider, telecom providers, Internet providers or malicious actors, can ...

and full integration with the webmail settings. The company is located in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

History

Hushmail was founded by Cliff Baltzley in 1999 after he left Ultimate Privacy.

Accounts

Individuals

There is one type of paid account, Hushmail for Personal Use, which provides 10GB of storage, as well as

IMAP In computing, the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is an Internet standard protocol used by email clients to retrieve email messages from a mail server over a TCP/IP connection. IMAP is defined by . IMAP was designed with the goal of per ...

and

POP3 In computing, the Post Office Protocol (POP) is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used by e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a mail server. Today, POP version 3 (POP3) is the most commonly used version. Together with IMAP, i ...

service.

Businesses

The standard business account provides the same features as the paid individual account, plus other features like vanity domain, email forwarding, catch-all email, user admin, archive, and Business Associate Agreements for healthcare plans. Features like secure forms and electronic signatures are available in specific plans. Additional security features include hidden

IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is assigned to a device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. IP addresses serve two main functions: network interface i ...

es in e-mail headers,

two-step verification Multi-factor authentication (MFA; two-factor authentication, or 2FA) is an electronic authentication method in which a user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting two or more distinct types of evidence ...

and

HIPAA The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA or the Kennedy– Kassebaum Act) is a United States Act of Congress enacted by the 104th United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on August 21, ...

-compliant encryption.

Instant messaging

instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of synchronous computer-mediated communication involving the immediate ( real-time) transmission of messages between two or more parties over the Internet or another computer network. Originally involv ...

service, Hush Messenger, was offered until July 1, 2011.

Compromises to email privacy

Hushmail received favorable reviews in the press. It was believed that possible threats, such as demands from the legal system to reveal the content of traffic through the system, were not imminent in Canada unlike the United States and that if data were to be handed over, encrypted messages would be available only in encrypted form. Developments in November 2007 led to doubts amongst security-conscious users about Hushmail's security specifically, concern over a backdoor. The issue originated with the non-Java version of the Hush system. It performed the encrypt/decrypt steps on Hush's servers, and then used SSL to transmit the data to the user. The data is available as cleartext during this small window of time, with the passphrase being capturable at this point, facilitating the decryption of all stored messages and future messages using this passphrase. Hushmail stated that the

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

version is also vulnerable, in that they may be compelled to deliver a compromised

Java applet Java applets were applet, small applications written in the Java (programming language), Java programming language, or another programming language that Compiled language, compiles to Java bytecode, and delivered to users in the form of Ja ...

to a user. Hushmail supplied cleartext copies of private email messages associated with several addresses at the request of law enforcement agencies under a

Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty A mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) is an agreement between two or more countries for the purpose of gathering and exchanging information in an effort to enforce public or criminal laws. A mutual legal assistance request is commonly used to fo ...

with the United States:Encrypted E-Mail Company Hushmail Spills to Feds , Threat Level via Wired.com
/ref> e.g. in the case of '' United States v. Stumbo''.Hushmail Privacy via Wired.com
In addition, the contents of emails between Hushmail addresses were analyzed, and 12 CDs were supplied to U.S. authorities. Hushmail privacy policy states that it logs IP addresses in order "to analyze market trends, gather broad demographic information, and prevent abuse of our services." Hush Communications, the company that provides Hushmail, states that it will not release any user data without a court order from the

Supreme Court of British Columbia The Supreme Court of British Columbia is the superior trial court for the province of British Columbia, Canada. The Court hears civil and criminal law cases as well as appeals from the Provincial Court of British Columbia. There are 90 judici ...

, Canada and that other countries seeking access to user data must apply to the government of Canada via an applicable Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty. Hushmail states, "...that means that there is no guarantee that we will not be compelled, under a court order issued by the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Canada, to treat a user named in a court order differently, and compromise that user's privacy" and " ..f a court order has been issued by the Supreme Court of British Columbia compelling us to reveal the content of your encrypted email, the "attacker" could be Hush Communications, the actual service provider."Hushmail – Free Email with Privacy – About

References

External links

* {{Official website Cryptographic software Webmail Internet privacy software OpenPGP Internet properties established in 1999