Our motivation
More privacy in the digital world
Data is a valuable commodity: Internet services, social networks and email providers save personal information, and set up profiles about the surfing behaviour, location, likes and consumer habits of their users – and make money out of it. User information is sold to data-peddlers or advertising partners and used to direct ads at target groups. For this reason, such organisations usually collect more data than is necessary. Due to this process, mounds of data are increasingly built up, and Big Brother long ago became reality on the internet. This situation is not necessarily disturbing to everyone.
But the culture of data-acquisition more and more often has consequences: with many services, sensitive information such as bank and credit card numbers are inadequately stored, and can therefore easily be stolen by third-parties and used fraudulently. There are plenty of examples of this. The situation often also does not look good in terms of security: many services do not secure access to user information appropriately, foregoing encryption and failing to protect against data loss.
People who find the responsible handling of their personal information important often refuse to use many online services and portals. In 2009, when we were looking in vain for an email offering that would handle our personal information in a responsible manner, we decided against abstaining from email and instead founded our own email service: Posteo.
Anonymity
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Sign up without entering personal details
With Posteo, you sign up without having to enter any personal information. We abstain in general from saving personal information. This prevents the pile-up of data and constitutes acting in line with the principles of data economy. We give you back sovereignty over your personal information and increase your right to informational self-determination.
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No data trading or dissemination
We don’t collect any user information – it follows that we don’t pass data on or trade it with anyone.
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Website does not save IP addresses
We do not save your IP address when you visit or use our website.
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IP stripping
In the source text of an email, the sender's IP addresses are sometimes listed in the so-called email header. We do not collect your IP address. Emails sent using Posteo therefore do not contain our customers' IP addresses. To protect your privacy and for security reasons, we also delete any potential IP address entries made by local email programs from the email headers. Emails sent using our webmail interface or using email programs therefore contain neither your local nor your public IP address.
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Alias addresses
Our alias addresses help you to restrict the circulation of your main address. Use alias addresses, for example, when signing up for online portals and forums.
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Data-efficiency
We do not collect user data nor do we possess traffic data (such as IP addresses) connected to any accounts. Processes and functions are always conceived with the principle of data-efficiency.
Ad-free
- No finance from advertising: Provision of services is calculated sustainably and supported by user contributions.
- Data efficiency by renouncing advertising: We have no interest in selling our users’ personal information to the advertising industry.
- No reliance on advertisers: The existence of many services on the internet is reliant upon the money and goodwill of advertisers. We are ad-free, and thereby autonomous.
Anonymous payment
With Posteo, you pay anonymously, regardless of whether this is by bank deposit, PayPal or in cash. We do not connect the information that we receive with payments to the email accounts and have anonymised all payment processes. With bank deposit, users enter a payment code in the reference field. At the moment of the deposit, the code allows the money to be automatically allocated, and is then deleted completely, so that there is no clue as to which account a payment was intended for. With cash payment we proceed in the same fashion. For PayPal payments we add credit at the moment of payment, but again do not connect the data with the email account.
Security
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Highly efficient virus filter
Our hourly-updated virus filter stops incoming emails that contain a (known) virus, actively protecting you from viruses.
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Highly efficient spam filter
The multi-level spam filter actively and reliably protects you from unwanted spam. More information on our spam filter can be found in our help section.
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Setting up aliases
You have the possibility to set up aliases, i.e. additional email addresses, within your account. This allows you to use different addresses for different purposes and, for example, use an alias only temporarily to take part in a promotion or competition.
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Daily backups
We undertake daily backups of all data. These are saved for a period of seven days, in order to be able to restore data for you in case of an emergency, if you accidentally delete something, for example. In urgent cases, we endeavour to recover your data outside our normal office hours.
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Automatic notification of deletion
Users often delete emails by mistake. To protect you from data loss, Posteo notifies you by email when a large number of emails have been deleted from your account. That way, you can request a backup in time, if necessary.
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Export and import of all data
You don’t only have the possibility to import data when coming to Posteo. You can also export data over standardised interfaces at any time, saving it locally and deleting it from your account.
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Employees are contractually bound in terms of confidentiality
Our employees have signed confidentiality agreements and our computers are fully encrypted. Any waste paper (for example, from cash payments) is shredded.
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Redundant data storage in Germany
All data is stored exclusively in Germany and kept redundantly in two main locations.
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Servers in highly secure data centres
Our servers are located in data centres in three German cities: Frankfurt, Bielefeld and Berlin. Frankfurt is effectively the hub of the internet in Germany. The two main locations in Frankfurt are connected by six independent optical fibre lines to the internet. The power supply is also set up via two independent sources. In addition, redundant UPS units take care of continued supply of power in case of a large-scale power failure. Measures such as fire protection constructions, various fire zones, separating the power supply from the servers, an electronic entry system and many other features bring about additional safety.
Sign up now
Open your Posteo account for 1 EUR per month here, and use it straight away. The signup process does not require you to enter any personal details.
Continue to signup >>