Secure messaging and calendar apps: Prioritize encryption and privacy of your digital communications

Here, we’ll think about the importance of privacy and encryption in email and calendar apps, including what to look for in a secure platform and why private products like Tuta Mail and Tuta Calendar are shaking things up. things to protect your digital information.

Growing demand for secure email and calendar apps

Today’s top email and calendar apps often manage tasks centrally, both on a personal and professional level. However, these same applications are vulnerable to cyberattacks. According to a 2022 Verizon study, more than 90% of data breaches include email as an entry point, and calendar-related information can compromise private meeting times, project deadlines, or other confidential information.

The more time we spend online and share more of our personal data with such services, the more important it is to know what dangers we create by using standard email and calendar apps. While standard email services like Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook have some sort of security around data protection, the business models of these services generally revolve around monetizing user data, and everyone’s privacy is at stake. vulnerable. Most importantly, the email and calendar events features are accessed through a third-party service provider or vendors which may pose a significant privacy risk.

Secure email and calendar apps are an answer for those who care about their privacy and want third parties to see their sensitive data. To ensure your chats are completely private, the apps include end-to-end encryption, anonymity tools, and other data security measures.

Know what cryptography is and why it is important

Encryption is at the heart of any secure email and calendar app. Encryption is the process of transforming any information or data into an unreadable, nonsensical code without anyone being able to read it. Such types of encryptions are available and can be used by secure email and calendar applications. Based on this, end-to-end encryption has become the gold standard for privacy.

End-to-end encryption (E2EE): is a method of data encryption, ensuring that messages can only be read by the sender and recipient. The information is sent to the device encrypted and decrypted only after it is received by the recipient. Even the service provider will not be able to decrypt and read your messages or events.

Transport layer encryption: It encrypts all data sent between your device and the server along its route. It does not protect emails and calendar events once they reach the service provider. Less secure than end-to-end encryption, but still very useful for protecting against certain types of interception and eavesdropping.

Architecture without knowledge: An email and calendar service with zero-knowledge architecture ensures that even the service provider cannot read your data. So emails, calendar events and all other sensitive information about you are stored in an encrypted form that even the provider cannot see and share.

To ensure that communications remain private if intercepted by hackers or spies, it is very important to use an end-to-end encryption protocol.

Features to look for in a secure email and calendar app

When looking for a secure email and calendar app, here are some features you should pay attention to so that your data is fully protected:

End-to-end encryption: End-to-end encryption is a feature that any secure email or calendar service should have so that only the recipient can read your emails or view your appointments, and no third party can intercept this content.

Suppliers without knowledge: A zero-knowledge provider will identify services that promise you a zero-knowledge architecture, meaning they don’t have access to your private data. It will secure it so that even in the event of a government subpoena or data breach, your information remains inaccessible to anyone but you.

Encrypted calendar functionality: Not all secure email services come with built-in calendar functionality. When these services provide this functionality, all data contained in the calendar must be encrypted so that unauthorized users cannot access your event details or your schedule.

No advertising or tracking: The most used email service uses advertisements or tracks user activities to generate revenue. Any email and calendar app focused on security and privacy should have an “ad-free, no-tracking” policy so that data is not used to power targeted ads or analytics.

Specifically, strong encryption should be complemented by two-factor authentication that requests both forms of identification necessary to access the person’s account, such as a password and a verification code; in this case, it is much more difficult for malicious hackers to gain access to the account because there is an additional layer of protection.

Most of the best secure email and calendar apps are open source, meaning that the code for that app is public and can be viewed. This allows independent security experts to review its code for any hidden vulnerabilities or backdoors.

Tuta: the leader in secure messaging and calendar solutions

One of the top contenders when it comes to finding a secure and private alternative to traditional email and calendar services is Tuta. This German-born company is built on basic security with privacy considerations and offers fully encrypted email and calendar features in a zero-knowledge approach. Some of the main benefits of using Tuta Mail and Tuta Calendar are:

Tuta mail will encrypt your emails end-to-end, including: Subject lines, attachments and metadata. Even if the recipient is not a Tuta mail user, emails can be sent end-to-end encrypted via a secure link and password protected so that all mail remains confidential.

Encrypted calendar: In addition to encrypted email, Tuta also has an encrypted calendar to ensure complete privacy in emails and scheduling. Your appointments, reminders and more are encrypted and prevent unauthorized access.

No advertising, no tracking: Most free email services generate revenue through serving ads or even tracking. Tuta mail avoids all of this thanks to its strict no-advertising and no-tracking policy. Your data is never sold or shared with advertisers.

It is open source and audited. The code is available for public review and audit. This feature brings simple and straightforward regular security checks to the service, making it very secure.

When looking for a secure alternative to the big providers, check out Tuta Mail and Tuta Calendar – with its all-new quantum-secure encryption and strict privacy protections, you’ll be choosing one of the best options available on the market.