Interview with Peer Heinlein at tarnkappe.info: mailbox.org was established after Snowden
In an extended interview with the news website tarnkappe.info, mailbox.org CEO Peer Heinlein talks about the history, motivations, mission and future of mailbox.org. Readers of the news site sent in their questions in advance of the interview.
We briefly revisit the beginnings of the company back in 1989, which created the foundation for the IT consulting business of today, their passion for Linux and open source software, and their mission to promote independence and freedom on the Internet. Looking into the future, the founding of mailbox.org was the next logical step for them to take.
The readers of tarnkappe.info asked many questions about the political developments in Germany and the EU, and the possible ramifications for e-mail providers. Peer Heinlein talks about his views on the possibility of government backdoors that may be used to circumvent encryption, the noticeable trend towards targeted access, increasing state control, but also why their business is based in Berlin and not somewhere else. He also answers questions about mailbox.org’s two data centers and who has access there, and how the data is being routed.
Peer Heinlein gives a clear answer to the question why mailbox.org is constantly extending their services beyond pure e-mail: "From the very beginning, we did not see ourselves as an ‘email-only provider’, but more as a communications provider - the European data-protecting alternative to Gmail & Co. Of course, this is a bit like David vs Goliath, and we know that Google will never tremble with fear because of us. But we do show that there are very good alternatives and that we do not do lazy compromises."