A secure Swiss alternative to Gmail and others

Anyone who wants to create a free email address for photos and documents in a cloud always faces the same problem. On the one hand, the web giants rely on advanced features and violate users' privacy in order to further develop their AI and sell ads in return. On the other hand, encrypted email services are complex and limited in functionality and storage space, which makes them difficult to use.

Secure, data protection compliant and sustainable

"Currently, there are very few mail solutions that are developed and hosted in Switzerland - let alone by independent companies that don't outsource everything abroad. It is precisely this control that allows us to never compromise on our values and to expand our commitment in the long term," says Boris Siegenthaler, founder and strategic director of Infomaniak.

Infomaniak has been developing its own data centers and mail service for over 20 years and manages nearly two million business email addresses in Switzerland and Europe, the company writes. Whether users access their email through the online interface mail.infomaniak.com or through the new mail app, access is direct and encrypted to Infomaniak's servers. This prevents, for example, e-mails from being intercepted by third-party providers via IMAP access. This direct and secured access also ensures the availability of the service abroad if Internet service providers (ISPs) block certain IMAP connections to foreign services.

Infomaniak's mail app is reportedly based on the open source principle: developers around the world can read the code and see what access permissions are requested by the app and how they are used to access user data.

The data would be stored in Switzerland in compliance with the DPA and the GDPR. To ensure maximum security, data would be permanently replicated on three carriers in Infomaniak's data centers in Switzerland. These data centers are powered exclusively by certified renewable energy, are cooled with filtered air without air conditioning and regularly receive awards for their energy efficiency, Infomaniak writes.

Swiss email solution with free 20 GB

Downloading the Infomaniak Mail app from the App Store, Google Play or F-Droid is enough to access Infomaniak's secure ecosystem. New users can create a free account with an address of the type @etik.com, @ik.me or @ikmail.com, while business customers can sign up immediately to manage their addresses with their own domain name, it says. In the free version, Infomaniak's email service offers 20 GB of email storage and 15 GB for sharing and synchronizing documents and photos in Infomaniak's Swiss cloud, it said.

The app can be used immediately, he said. Via the advanced actions in the main menu, the user can automatically import emails from an old Gmail or Outlook address. In addition, the app is constantly being developed further and already offers all common functions for the efficient management of e-mails, including:

• Sending and receiving e-mails with Infomaniak addresses
• Forwarding and moving messages, etc.
• Storage of e-mails in user-defined folders
• Quick search with filters (favorites, recipients, attachments, etc.)
• Instant notifications for new messages
• Customize the user experience (colors, swipe options, etc.)
• Advanced protection against viruses, phishing and spam
• Secure access with device lock (Face ID, etc.)
• Synchronization of contacts and appointments on all devices via the online interface https://mail.infomaniak.com

Protection against security risks and fraud

Infomaniak Mail actively helps users protect themselves from security risks and fraud:

-Reporting phishing and automatic phishing protection

-Automatic protection against viruses and spam messages

-Notification of messages from new senders or contacts that have not been added to the address book.

-Automatic blocking of potentially dangerous remote content

-Lock the app via Face ID or the locking procedure of the respective device.