Skiff Mail is a new end-to-end encrypted email service, but should you use it?

Skiff Mail has been released to the public, it is a new end-to-end encrypted email service provider. The company says it is focused on protecting the privacy of its users.

The service is native to Web3, you can visit this page to sign up for a free personal account.

Although Skiff Mail’s blog post says that users get 10 GB of free cloud storage space for signing up for a personal account, the pricing page you can access from settings shows that you only get 1 GB of space. . Email isn’t the only thing Skiff can do, it can also save notes in Markdown format, encode blocks, edit and create documents. You can choose to store your data on a decentralized server, add email aliases, import documents from Google Drive, or upload them directly from your computer. Users have an upload limit of 30 MB. One of the features highlighted in the post announcement is Skiff’s instant search, which can search results across thousands of files instantly.

The data associated with your account is synced across all your devices. Skiff apps are open source, you can access the web app from your browser or install the mobile app on your iOS or Android device or the desktop app on your macOS machine.

When you sign up for an account, Skiff Mail will ask you to save a one-time recovery key, which you can use to unlock your account if you forget your password. If you lose it, you will not be able to access the account due to the encryption used by the service. You can enable 2FA (two-factor authentication) from settings, to protect your account. New users can sign up for an account using its Wallet meta skin, and the company says it will support Brave Wallet soon.

Skiff Mail has paid plans that you can upgrade to for more benefits.

Should you use Skiff Mail?

It’s always good to see a new encrypted email service provider trying to compete with the rest. But should you use Skiff Mail? Let’s take a look at the service’s Privacy Policy, shall we? you can read it here.

Scroll down to the section titled Automatic Data Collection and you will see that the Skiff Mail website collects the following user information.

• IP adress
• MAC address
• Cookie identifiers
• Mobile operator (cell phone provider)
• User settings
• Browser or device information

Collecting user settings is perhaps acceptable, as is browser and device information, probably related to cookies stored in the browser and perhaps for compatibility. In addition to the personal data above, Skiff Mail also collects general location information and approximate location based on your IP address.

Still not convinced? Let’s keep reading the privacy policy. Skiff Mail’s privacy policy mentions that it will collect other information, such as the web pages you visit before, during and after using its services. It will also track the links you click, the content you interact with, and how often you are active and use the company’s services. Company will not honor Do Not Track requests sent by the web browser.

The Privacy Policy says that all data Skiff Mail collects is used to provide its services, market and advertise its products to the user and for its operational purposes. However, the next section of the privacy policy says that the company will disclose user information to third parties for a variety of business purposes, and this includes sharing the data with its service providers, business partners, advertising partners. And if it ever merges with or is acquired by another company or something like that, your information may be sold or transferred as part of the transaction.

Although there is an account delete button in the settings, the only way to delete your user information is to contact Skiff Mail via email. And then there are some third party tools that the company uses for analytics purposes, and these have their own privacy policies.

The only thing Skiff can’t access seems to be the content of your emails, because they’re encrypted. But what good is end-to-end encryption if a service collects so much user data and tracks it? It learns your browsing habits, which is essentially profiling the user. This is no different from what Facebook and Google do, right?

If you read the privacy policy of other end-to-end encrypted mail services like ProtonMail and Tutanota, you will not find such data collection clauses there. And the data they collect is done anonymously, that is, they do not profile users.

What do you think about Skiff Mail’s privacy policy?

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