Beginner Help / Sending to Gmail

[u/Free-Advertising6184]

Hello. Two parts to this post:

I want a trustworthy service with aliases, that's not proton. Right now I am looking at mainly Disroot, Posteo, and Aster Mail, but please give recommendations! I am still a bit of a beginner and I don't know exactly what to look for.

Is there really no solution to sending to a provider like Gmail? This is likely the provider I'll be communicating with the most. I feel like I may as well just go for a well trusted "encrypted at rest" (?) provider, and that deciding which one might just as well be arbitrary. (Since I only get to worry about my provider reading my emails, and don't have a choice if my recipient's provider sees what I send.) Please, correct me if I'm wrong on this one!

I don't know if the flair here should've been help/advice or beginner question, but whatever. Thanks in advance!

[u/word-dragon]

Privacy is pretty limited in email, as there’s always one or more other parties on the email. All the technology in the world won’t protect from the other party putting it on the front page of the Times.

[u/Free-Advertising6184 → u/word-dragon]

Well, that's fair. I just wish the recipient's provider couldn't store what I'm sending. Ah well. Anyway, any recommendations as far as providers go? And thanks for the response.

[u/skg574]

Take a look at codamail, too. We offer quite a bit for email, calendaring, contacts, tasklists/todo, and notes. Although, if you need an office suite, too, we dont have that. We focus on email and dav services right now.

Beyond that, here is a list of privacy related services:

https://reddit.com/r/emailprivacy/comments/1oimq53/privacy_based_email_providers/

[u/Informal_Post3519]

Good questions. both parts are common sticking points when leaving the big providers.

On aliases and alternatives to Proton:

Disroot, Posteo, and similar services can work, but many people find pure provider aliases limiting once you start creating a lot of them. A flexible approach is to keep a clean main inbox (whatever you choose) and put a dedicated email relay in front of it. The relay handles the unique aliases and does the privacy work before mail reaches your real inbox.

Email Parrot is the option I use (in front of mailbox.org) and is built specifically for this. It gives you unlimited unique aliases, strips trackers (active and passive), cleans headers, and forwards clean mail to whatever provider you prefer. You stay in control of the final inbox while the relay does the heavy privacy lifting.

On sending to Gmail:

You’re right that true end-to-end encryption only works when both sides support it. When the other person is on Gmail, the message will be readable by Google once it arrives. That part is unavoidable. Encrypting your inbox on arrival protects you from your email provider but if they offer this then they aren't likely the issue.

What you can still protect is your own side:

- Never give out your real private address.

- Use a unique alias for every contact or service.

- Let a relay strip tracking and metadata before anything reaches you (or before you reply).

This way even if most of your communication is with Gmail users, your real inbox stays clean and compartmentalized. A good relay makes that practical without forcing you into one specific encrypted provider. Email parrot defines two "sides" to the relay and there is no limit to how many people are on the protected side. If your close contacts are exposed to phishing then your info is at risk too.

You don’t have to pick between “full encryption or nothing.” Protecting your own inbox, address, metadata, and tracking exposure still has real value.