Huawei Eyes ProtonMail as It Searches for Gmail Alternative (bloomberg.com) 32
ProtonMail is in talks with Huawei about including its encrypted email service in future mobile devices, part of the Chinese phone maker's plan to develop an alternative to Google ecosystem. From a report: The Swiss company's service could come preloaded on future Huawei mobile devices or be offered inside its app store, AppGallery, said Andy Yen, ProtonMail's chief executive officer. The company hasn't made a final decision about offering its service on Huawei's channel, he said. Huawei may lose access to Google's programs after the U.S. added it to a trade blacklist in May, meaning American businesses need a special license to do business with the Chinese company. The restrictions also affect updates for the Google Android operating system that powers all its smartphones abroad, and without which Huawei can't offer critical apps like Gmail. As a result, Huawei has been racing to build out its own mobile operating system, HarmonyOS, and enlisting developers to offer services on its app store. "What they see from us is having an alternative to Google in case they can't offer Google anymore," Yen said in an interview.
backdoor (Score:3)
Will I guess one of the impacts of the trade war, China Companies look elsewhere
But I am curious, will protonMail need to have a special version for people in China ? Or will it be back-doored for all countries. I am sure the questions could apply to any "WEB" type email service.
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Yeah, this is going to damage their credibility.
Speaking as a PM Visionary customer here, using it for myself and friends.
We decoupled from the Goog, and we've got things under our own domains. It's not like we couldn't leave. See that email up there? I don't have to keep paying for it...
Don't do it PM.
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Not needed. Huawei is under the rule of the Chinese government, so they could just build a keylogger into the code. Then it wouldn't matter HOW secure your application was.
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They'll probably work with a subsidiary on a branded version that allows backdoors. You don't really need a backdoor if you have control over the device though. China already requires that all their handsets come with a backdoor installed so all China has to do is siphon the data out once it reaches the user, ProtonMail can keep its hands clean.
On the other hand, implementing e-mail isn't that hard.
Re:backdoor (Score:4, Insightful)
The issue is not so much that they can maintain a separate codebase that spies on Chinese citizens, but not others, but that they would. That's not the behavior of someone I trust to implement a product relying so heavily on cryptography and handling my personal correspondence. It would speak poorly to their character.
Not everything that can be done, should be. And with the power to do things comes the responsibility to know when not to do them.
protonmail is great (Score:4, Funny)
it's free and the amount of ridiculous spams I get is quite good. I had forgotten how entertaining spam and phishing emails can be.
Right now I am quoting on several gross of "undergarment, male, morbidly obese, quick-release front flap" because someone inquired about my email account.
Is ProtonMail ready for US sanctions? (Score:2)
You may ask...Sanctions? In what form?
My response: Like getting Google pressured [by the US government], to boot it from the Play Store.
Why bother? (Score:2)
Web email services are a dime a dozen. Why not just create your own service? There are plenty of software packages that already do it, and I'm sure there are plenty of Chinese webmail providers (between QQ and 163.com judging by the fact all my Chinese contacts have those email addresses).
Plus it comes with the requisite level of state monitoring built in.
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Opting out of the Google ecosystem is hard.
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That too :)
But i was thinking of stories of people who tried to disconnect from google, microsoft and the other big ones, starting of course with their android smartphone and discovering how deeply it is integrated. Like this one https://gizmodo.com/i-cut-goog... [gizmodo.com]
or this one https://www.vice.com/en_uk/art... [vice.com]
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Eh? Aren't you making too big a deal out of this?
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I find ridiculous that some comments here have been upvoted while this is obviously the most insightful comment so far (and not upvoted).
If so, then so much for ProtonMail (Score:4, Insightful)
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Its ironic, but as desperate as protonmail may be to gain lucrative clients, discretion may be the better part of valor with this potential customer. Picking up Huawei guarantees they'll be getting the full attention and significant portion of the wallets of the NSA and MSS (Hell, throw in the French, Mossad, and Russians as well). And in the unlikely instance protonmail cannot be hacked, it wouldn't stop the US or the EU screwing them over some other way.
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So exactly like Gmail and Hotmail or whatever it's called now, and all the other ones.
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If you are paranoid enough to believe that there are undetectable backdoors in Huawei phones for the western market, you had better not own a phone. Most of them are made in China. If Huawei devices are compromised then you must also assume that every iPhone and Android device made there also has the same undetectable backdoors.
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I have a $50 plastic dumbphone for my personal use. What little I actually use it for, that is.
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Which was also made in China, and presumably also has the same spyware. Dumbphones aren't really that dumb unless it's a really ancient Nokia 3310 or something.
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Oh gee guess I'll just give up, get Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Google accounts, use my real name everywhere, wear a FitBit 24/7, and post every little thought I have online, pictures everywhere, and so on, and so on..
FFS give it a rest. It's a cheap-ass LG clamshell phone that doesn't even have or run 'apps', it's not running Android or anything else, it's got physical buttons, and as soon as I got it I identified and disabled the GPS in it by shorting it's