It's practically impossible to use a computer or a smartphone without an email account. Most of us have a few, and we use them for a variety of purposes; from registering to social media sites, over signing up for newsletters, to communicating with friends and colleagues.

But mainstream email providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo lack important security features. This is where encrypted email services come in. And if you're on the fence about using one, here are four reasons to switch.

1. Enhanced Privacy

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When registering for an email account with a company like Microsoft, Yahoo, or Google, you are asked to provide your name, last name, location, and phone number. But even if you find a way around that or provide false information, these companies will still track you. And they will track you in an incredibly invasive way, gathering information about your device and operating system, location, age, gender, shopping habits, interests, marital status, income, and so on.

To their credit, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and other tech firms are pretty upfront about what they do—feel free to skim through their privacy policies and see for yourself. While it is true that you can disable some tracking via the settings menus and such, your data will still be collected and potentially shared with advertisers and other third parties. This is not the case with encrypted email providers.

Encrypted email services are designed in a way that they enhance user privacy, rather than violate it. Secure email providers neither gather nor share a significant amount of user data; they support end-to-end encryption, and have numerous privacy protections in place that make it nearly impossible for anyone to view your emails or track you in some way.

2. Better Security

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The conventional wisdom that large companies with massive budgets have stronger security should finally be put to rest. If you follow the news regularly, you've probably realized that massive data breaches happen on a monthly, if not weekly, basis. In fact, because tech giants have larger attack surfaces than smaller companies, they are more vulnerable to all kinds of cyber threats.

Encrypted email providers, on the other hand, are inherently more secure. Not just because they are operated by comparatively small teams, but because their platforms are built with security in mind. For a start, most use zero-access encryption, which means that nobody but the user has access to sensitive information.

Gmail and similar services have features such as two-factor authentication and typically demand users set up complicated passwords. This is certainly commendable, but encrypted email providers employ secure remote password mechanisms, and use the strongest encryption algorithms available today.

In other words, even in the unlikely event of a breach, your personal information would not be accessible to hackers if you're using a good encrypted email provider. With a regular one, there's always a chance your personal data ends up somewhere on the dark web.

3. Protection From Government Surveillance

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No serious whistleblower, activist, dissident, or investigative reporter uses Gmail or Yahoo to share sensitive information, which tells you everything you need to know about these services, at least when it comes to government surveillance. Google, for one, clearly states on its official website that it retains the right to abide by government requests and hand over user information. Other tech companies are hardly any better, bar a few notable exceptions.

Encrypted email providers are the polar opposite. Obviously, it's always a good idea to scan through a company's privacy policy and terms of service before using its products, but most encrypted email services have a strict policy of not complying with government requests. For the most part, they are based outside the United States, in countries with stricter privacy laws.

For example, ProtonMail is based in Switzerland, which has some of the strictest privacy laws on the planet. Tutanota's servers are situated in Germany, while Mailfence is based in Belgium, another European country with strong privacy protections. Disroot, meanwhile, is based in the Netherlands, while Posteo is also in Germany.

This is not to say European governments are not interested in surveilling their citizens: they most certainly are, but their agencies simply don't have as much maneuver space as, say, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations) and the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) do in the United States. For example, The Intercept revealed in 2022 that the DHS worked hard over the years to police and control the flow of information on Twitter.

4. Independence From Big Tech

Gmail, email, Windows symbols with a padlock seen on orange background

Big Tech companies' business models are largely based on collecting user data. They are accountable to the US government, and often pressured by it to share information about their customers. Plus, it has been shown time and time again that their products are neither safe nor private. And if that's not reason enough to avoid them, there is good evidence they have monopolized multiple markets in the technological sector.

If you care about your online privacy and cybersecurity in any capacity, you should make an effort to stay away from Big Tech and support smaller companies whose business strategies include more than monetizing peoples' data and destroying competition through market monopolization and other unfair practices.

And even if you couldn't care less about the state of the tech industry and just want to use a reliable email service, mainstream providers don't offer anything encrypted email providers do not. If anything, their products are subpar and come with the added baggage of security holes and privacy-invasive features.

Switch to An Encrypted Email Service

When faced with a choice between using a regular or an encrypted email provider, there's no real dilemma. Secure, encrypted email services offer everything mainstream providers don't, and then some. This does not mean they are perfect, however.

There isn't a system that cannot be breached, or a software product that does not have flaws. And precisely because their business models are not based on collecting user data, most encrypted email services offer only limited features for free. Still, they are a far superior choice to mainstream providers, and you should strongly consider making the switch.