BOOST YOUR EMAIL PRIVACY IN PROTON MAIL
Password-protect your Proton Mail messages
As we mentioned, one of Proton Mail’s best features is the ability to encrypt private emails you send to people who aren’t using the service or another PGP tool, by protecting them with a password.
To do this, either click the padlock button in the bottom-left corner of a new message window or press Ctrl-Shift-E. Enter the password you want to use ( 1 in our screenshot below) – you’ll need to share this with the intended recipient, so you may want to click the button to copy the password to your clipboard and paste it into a separate email. Alternatively, you can share it by text message, WhatsApp or over the phone. You can also provide a hint to help the other person guess the password. Click ‘Set encryption’ to apply the password protection.
By default, your encrypted email will expire and be deleted from your Sent folder and the recipient’s Inbox after 28 days – whether they’ve read it or not. To reduce the expiry time, click the Edit button, specify the number of days and hours 2 , and tick ‘I’m sending this message to a non-Proton Mail user’. Click ‘Set’ 3 to confirm and send the email.
You can make emails to other Proton Mail users expire without encrypting them with a password, because the encryption will be applied automatically.
The recipient will receive a message explaining that they have an encrypted email from your Proton
Mail address. It will contain a button to ‘Unlock message’. After clicking this they will be prompted to enter the password you provided, so they can read the content.
Import and encrypt contacts in Proton Mail
Proton Mail encrypts the names and email addresses of your contacts, and protects them with a digital signature so they can’t be tampered with. However, it doesn’t apply zero-access encryption to the data, because this would stop certain features – including autocomplete, spam filtering and search – working properly. Extra information you add to contacts, such as phone numbers and home addresses, is fully encrypted so that only you can see it, as indicated by a padlock icon.
To import and encrypt your contact data from Gmail or Outlook, you’ll first need to export the details as a CSV file. To do this for Gmail, go to https://contacts.google.com and select the contacts you want to migrate. Click ‘Export’, select Google CSV then click ‘Export’ to download the CSV file.
In Outlook, click the People icon in the left-hand toolbar and select ‘Export contacts’ in the Manage menu in the top-right corner. Click ‘Export’ to save your contacts as a CSV file.
Back in Proton Mail, click Contacts then Settings and choose ‘Import from .csv or vCard’ (see screenshot below). Select your downloaded CSV (this file is permitted to contain up to 10,000 contacts) then when you’re ready click Import.
Boost the security of your Proton Mail account by using two-factor authentication.
Secure Proton Mail with two-factor authentication
You can add another level of security to your Proton Mail account by enabling two-factor authentication (2FA). This ensures that only you can access your emails, should your password be somehow compromised.
To use 2FA, you must first install an authenticator app on your phone and have access to that device while logging into your account. One of the best free options is Twilio Authy (Android www.twillo.com). Install this app on your phone – you’ll need to verify your device via text or WhatsApp message – then open Proton Mail in your desktop browser, and click Settings, then ‘Go to settings’. Select ‘Account and password’ in the left-hand menu and switch on ‘Authenticator app’ ( 1 in our screenshot above) under ‘Two-factor authentication’. Enter your Proton Mail password, click Authenticate and click Next.
You’ll now be prompted to scan a QR code using the authenticator app on your phone. In Authy, tap the ‘Add account’ button, then Scan QR Code to activate your camera and scan the code. Authy will ask if you want to enable backups, but you can skip this by tapping the three-line icon in the top-right corner. Type the provided six-digit code into Proton Mail to enable 2FA – you can download a list of recovery codes 2 in case you lose your mobile device.
Alternatively, secure your Proton Mail account using two passwords – one to log in with and the other to decrypt your inbox. Switch on ‘Two-password mode’ on the ‘Account and password’ page, enter the first login you want to use, then click Save and type the second password. Note that Proton Mail can’t access your mailbox password, so if you forget it you’ll be locked out of your account.