Free Email For Mac Users
Polymail is truly an amazing email client for Mac users: it is, unequivocally, a very helpful, cool and useful email app. Price: Free Download it now from Polymail. Inky ®: Secure Email Made Easy. Inky is a Mac mail app that focuses more on privacy and security.
These are the best free secure email providers
Secure email solutions are growing in popularity as more and more people are choosing to leave insecure email providers such as Outlook, Yahoo, and Gmail. Those services have been shown to scan user’s emails for advertising data. And have even been caught providing access to the contents of emails for government snoops at the NSA.
- Mac users can manage how their browsing history is used to personalize search, ads, and more by navigating to their 'Sync Settings' within Chrome. Encryption options, auto-completion of searches and URLs, similar page suggestions, safe browsing, and enhanced spell check are also available within the settings tab, helping users feel more in.
- Free email services do cap the number of email messages you can send out per day. This is to cut down on spam messages sent with their services. The cap is generally around 100 messages per day, which is sufficient for keeping in touch with family or other personal email uses.
If you are sick of having your privacy invaded, you may be wondering if it is possible to start getting better email security for free. The good news is that there are plenty of secure email providers on the market that provide a simple, single address service for free. In this guide, we'll show you our favourites.
While secure email options don’t necessarily get masses of storage space, and all the extra features that come with a Google account, you do get secure encrypted messaging. This means that when you send and receive emails, you know that only you can access the contents of those emails.
The best free, secure Email providers: In-depth analysis
Below we have listed the 4 most secure free email providers. All of these services will keep your private emails private and are great alternatives to Gmail, Outlook, and other services that sell your data to the highest bidder. Click through to the email provider's website for more information about their service.
ProtonMail is based in Switzerland, a location considered much better than invasive jurisdictions such as the US and the UK. This means that the firm can provide a strong privacy policy that promises never to store your IP address or other personally identifiable data.
While it is possible that Swiss authorities could serve the firm with a warrant to provide whatever data it has because it keeps no logs (other than payment information) it would not have anything to hand over.
However, free users are asked to verify their account, which means that you will need to provide another email address when you create the account. This is not ideal and does mean that to start a free account that isn’t tied to you, you will need a “burner” email address elsewhere.
Most importantly, ProtonMail is open-source, and it has been audited. In addition, it provides full PGP compatibility for sending encrypted emails. And all emails are securely encrypted on its servers while at rest.
This is impressive considering that you can use it for free with one address and 500 MB of storage space. If you value privacy and don’t need more than one email address - you really have no reason not to leave the likes of AOL and Yahoo behind.
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NOTE:
Between mid October 2019 and mid February 2020 everyone in the Army was migrated to use their PIV Authentication certificate for Email access. You no longer use the Email certificate for Enterprise Email or any CAC enabled websites
Mac users who choose to upgrade (or already have upgraded) to Mac OS Catalina (10.15.x) or Big Sur (11.xx.x) will need to uninstall all 3rd Party CAC enablers per https://militarycac.com/macuninstall.htm AND reenable the native smart card ability (very bottom of macuninstall link above)
If you purchased your Mac with OS Catalina (10.15.x) or Big Sur (11.xx.x) already installed, you can skip the uninstall part above and follow the instructions below.
6 'high level' steps needed, follow down the page to make this a painless systematic process
1. | Is your CAC reader 'Mac friendly'? |
2. | Can your Mac 'see' the reader? |
3. | Verify which version of Mac OS you have |
4. | Figure out which CAC (ID card) you have |
5. | Install the DoD certificates |
5a. | Additional DoD certificate installation instructions for Firefox users |
6. | Decide which CAC enabler you want to use (except for 10.12-.15 & 11) |
Step 1: Is your CAC reader Mac friendly?
Visit the USB Readers page to verify the CAC reader you have is Mac friendly.
Visit the USB-C Readers page to verify the CAC reader you have is Mac friendly.
'Some, not all' CAC readers may need to have a driver installed to make it work.
NOTE: Readers such as: SCR-331 & SCR-3500A may need a firmware update (NO OTHER Readers need firmware updates).
Information about these specific readers are in Step 2
Step 2: Can your Mac 'see' the reader?
Plug the CAC reader into an open USB port before proceeding, give it a few moments to install
Step 2a: Click the Apple Icon in the upper left corner of the desktop, select 'About This Mac'
Step 2b: Click 'System Report...' (button)
Step 2c: Verify the CAC reader shows in Hardware, USB, under USB Device Tree. Different readers will show differently, most readers have no problem in this step. See Step 2c1 for specific reader issues.
Step 2c1: Verify firmware version on your SCR-331, SCR-3310 v2.0, GSR-202, 202V, 203, or SCR-3500a reader. If you have a reader other than these 6, Proceed directly to step 3
Step 2c1a-SCR-331 reader
If your reader does not look like this, go to the next step.
In the 'Hardware' drop down, click 'USB.' On the right side of the screen under 'USB Device Tree' the window will display all hardware plugged into the USB ports on your Mac. Look for “SCRx31 USB Smart Card Reader.” If the Smart Card reader is present, look at 'Version' in the lower right corner of this box: If you have a number below 5.25, you need to update your firmware to 5.25. If you are already at 5.25, your reader is installed on your system, and no further hardware changes are required. You can now Quit System Profiler and continue to Step 3.
Step 2c1b-SCR-3310 v2.0 reader
If your reader does not look like this, go to the next step.
In the 'Hardware' drop down, click 'USB.' On the right side of the screen under 'USB Device Tree' the window will display all hardware plugged into the USB ports on your Mac. Look for “SCR3310 v2.0 USB Smart Card Reader.” If the Smart Card reader is present, look at 'Version' in the lower right corner of this box: If you have a number below 6.02, it will not read the 'G+D FIPS 201 SCE 7.0' CAC on Mac OS 11.xx.x or 10.15.7. I contacted HID (the company that makes these readers) on 14 DEC 2020 to find a way to update the firmware to 6.02. They said there is not firmware update for the reader. If your reader is older, you may need a new one. Please look at: https://militarycac.com/usbreaders.htm to find a compatible one. If you are already at version 6.02, your reader should work fine on your Mac and no further hardware changes are required. You can now Quit System Profiler and continue to Step 3.
Step 2c1c-SCR-3500A reader
If you have the SCR3500A P/N:905430-1 CAC reader,you may need to install this driver, as the one that installs automatically will not work on most Macs. Hold the control key [on your keyboard] when clicking the .pkg file [with your mouse], select [the word] Open
Step 3: Verify which version of MacOS you have?
(You need to know this information for step 6)
Step 3a: Click the Apple Icon in the upper left corner of your desktop and select 'About This Mac'
Step 3b: Look below Mac OS X for: Example: Version 10.X.X, or 11.X
Step 4: Figure out which CAC (ID Card) you have
(You need to know this information for step 6)
Look at the top back of your ID card for these card types. If you have any version other than the seven shown below, you need to visit an ID card office and have it replaced. All CACs [other than these six] were supposed to be replaced prior to 1 October 2012.
Find out how to flip card over video
Step 5: Install the DoD certificates (for Safari and Chrome Users)
Go to Keychain Access
Click: Go (top of screen), Utilities, double click Keychain Access.app
(You can also type: keychain access using Spotlight (this is my preferred method))
Select login (under Keychains),and All Items (under Category).
Download the 5 files via links below (you may need to <ctrl> click, select Download Linked File As... on each link) Save to your downloads folder
Please know... IF You have any DoD certificates already located in your keychain access, you will need to delete them prior to running the AllCerts.p7b file below.
https://militarycac.com/maccerts/AllCerts.p7b,
https://militarycac.com/maccerts/RootCert2.cer,
https://militarycac.com/maccerts/RootCert3.cer,
https://militarycac.com/maccerts/RootCert4.cer, and
Double click each of the files to install certificates into the login section of keychain
Select the Kind column, verify the arrow is pointing up, scroll down to certificate, look for all of the following certificates:
DOD DERILITY CA-1
DOD EMAIL CA-39 through DOD EMAIL CA-44,
DOD EMAIL CA-49 through DOD EMAIL CA-52,
DOD EMAIL CA-59,
DOD EMAIL CA-62 through DOD EMAIL CA-65
DOD ID CA-39 through DOD ID CA-44,
DOD ID CA-49 through DOD ID CA-52,
DOD ID CA-59,
DOD ID CA-62 through DOD ID CA-65
DOD ID SW CA-45 through DOD ID SW CA-48,
DoD Root CA 2 through DoD Root CA 5,
DOD SW CA-53 through DOD SW CA-58,
DOD SW CA-60 through DOD SW CA-61, and
DOD SW CA-66 through DOD SW 67
NOTE: If you are missing any of the above certificates, you have 2 choices,
1. Delete all of them, and re-run the 5 files above, or
2. Download the allcerts.zip file and install each of the certificates you are missing individually.
Errors:
Error 100001 Solution
Error 100013 Solution
You may notice some of the certificates will have a red circle with a white X . This means your computer does not trust those certificates
You need to manually trust the DoD Root CA 2, 3, 4, & 5 certificates
Double click each of the DoD Root CA certificates, select the triangle next to Trust, in the When using this certificate: select Always Trust, repeat until all 4 do not have the red circle with a white X.
You may be prompted to enter computer password when you close the window
Once you select Always Trust, your icon will have a light blue circle with a white + on it.
The 'bad certs' that have caused problems for Windows users may show up in the keychain access section on some Macs. These need to be deleted / moved to trash.
The DoD Root CA 2 & 3 you are removing has a light blue frame, leave the yellow frame version. The icons may or may not have a red circle with the white x
or | DoD Interoperability Root CA 1 or CA 2 | certificate | |
DoD Root CA 2 or 3 (light blue frame ONLY) | certificate | ||
or | Federal Bridge CA 2016 or 2013 | certificate | |
or | Federal Common Policy CA | certificate | |
or | or | SHA-1 Federal Root CA G2 | certificate |
or | US DoD CCEB Interoperability Root CA 1 | certificate |
If you have tried accessing CAC enabled sites prior to following these instructions, please go through this page before proceeding
Clearing the keychain (opens a new page)
Mail Programs For Mac
Please come back to this page to continue installation instructions.
Step 5a: DoD certificate installation instructions for Firefox users
NOTE: Firefox will not work on Catalina (10.15.x), or last 4 versions of Mac OS if using the native Apple smartcard ability
Download AllCerts.zip, [remember where you save it].
double click the allcerts.zip file (it'll automatically extract into a new folder)
Option 1 to install the certificates (semi automated):
From inside the AllCerts extracted folder, select all of the certificates
<control> click (or Right click) the selected certificates, select Open With, Other...
In the Enable (selection box), change to All Applications
Select Firefox, then Open
You will see several dozen browser tabs open up, let it open as many as it wants..
You will eventually start seeing either of the 2 messages shown next
If the certificate is not already in Firefox, a window will pop up stating 'You have been asked to trust a new Certificate Authority (CA).'
Check all three boxes to allow the certificate to: identify websites, identify email users, and identify software developers
or
'Alert This certificate is already installed as a certificate authority.' Click OK
Once you've added all of the certificates...
• Click Firefox (word) (upper left of your screen)
• Preferences
• Advanced (tab)
• Press Network under the Advanced Tab
• In the Cached Web Content section, click Clear Now (button).
• Quit Firefox and restart it
Option 2 to install the certificates (very tedious manual):
Click Firefox (word) (upper left of your screen)
Preferences
Advanced (tab on left side of screen)
Certificates (tab)
View Certificates (button)
Authorities (tab)
Import (button)
Browse to the DoD certificates (AllCerts) extracted folder you downloaded and extracted above.
Note: You have to do this step for every single certificate
Note2: If the certificate is already in Firefox, a window will pop up stating: 'Alert This certificate is already installed as a certificate authority (CA).' Click OK
Note3: If the certificate is not already in Firefox, a window will pop up stating 'You have been asked to trust a new Certificate Authority (CA).'
Check all three boxes to allow the certificate to: identify websites, identify email users, and identify software developers
Once you've added all of the certificates...
• Click Firefox (word) (upper left of your screen)
• Preferences
• Advanced (tab)
• Press Network under the Advanced Tab
• In the Cached Web Content section, click Clear Now (button).
• Quit Firefox and restart it
Step 6: Decide which CAC enabler you can / want to use
Mac Email Account
Only for Mac El Capitan (10.11.x or older)
Best Free Email For Mac Users
After installing the CAC enabler, restart the computer and go to a CAC enabled website
NOTE: Mac OS Sierra (10.12.x), High Sierra (10.13.x), Mojave (10.14.x), Catalina (10.15.x), and Big Sur (11.x) computers no longer need a CAC Enabler.
Try to access the CAC enabled site you need to access now
Free Email For Mac Users
Mac support provided by: Michael Danberry