‘E-Mail made in Germany’ Systematically Prevents the Participation of Other Providers

The ‘E-Mail made in Germany initiative, which is operated by T-Online, United Internet (web.de, GMX) and Freenet, prides itself in public on the fact that it has established secure e-mail communication among German providers. The unfortunate reality, however, is that other providers are systematically prevented from participating.

Our request to participate in the ‘E-Mail made in Germany’ initiative has been ignored for more than half a year. Although the initiative declares in public that conditions of participation and documents will be sent on request, many months have gone by and we have received nothing, despite many promises made over the telephone and numerous e-mails.

The participation of other providers appears to be unwelcome in reality, contrary to all the statements made in public. The major providers need to decide whether they do really want to offer secure e-mail communication between providers or whether ‘E-Mail made in Germany’ is simply a pure marketing ploy. If the participation of other providers is systematically prevented, this may ultimately be regarded as unfair competition due to the market dominance enjoyed by the major providers…

At the same time, mailbox.org believes it is important that high-quality providers outside of ‘E-Mail made in Germany’ are also able to ensure secure e-mail communication. Even though we cannot participate officially, mailbox.org guarantees that the e-mails sent from and to ‘E-Mail made in Germany’ systems and from and to many other providers are always securely encrypted. Thus, it really goes without saying that the secure transport provided by mailbox.org should also be publicly certified!

The ‘Inter Mail Provider Trust’ concept devised by the four providers belonging to the ‘E-Mail made in Germany’ initiative is a controversial topic among experts, who tend to stress the importance of the DANE protocol instead. This is considered to be more secure. mailbox.org was one of the first providers to consistently support DANE. We are able to guarantee the secure exchange of e-mails with other providers.

What’s more, as a technically advanced provider, mailbox.org also relies on DNSsec, which is difficult to operate but extremely secure, and can eliminate man-in-the-middle attacks on the domain names of a provider.