Own-Mailbox, protecting you privacy.

Own-Mailbox is a personal email server you can run in your own home, with strong privacy protection measures integrated at its core. It provides self-hosted email addresses, and allows you to protect the content of your emails, and the meta-data, from mass surveillance.

Own-Mailbox, is very easy to set-up and use. It automatically encrypts your emails using Gnu Privacy Guard, a strong encryption software, and allows you to protect your meta-data thanks to the tor network. The information that you exchanged emails with another own-mailbox user, and the anonymity of your email account, will be protected.

Freedom matters

100% Free Software.

Privacy matters.

Private emails, 100% auditable.

Own-Mailbox is yours!

We make everything so you are the only one in control. Even we don't have access to your messages.

Easy to use!

We want to make sure it is usable by anyone.

Made with Love!

We are trying to contribute positively to humanity!

open-source-icon

A project by Pierre Parent, Embedded Systems Engineer

I am a freelance embedded systems engineer! Feel free to contact me if you want me to work on your embedded systems projects or to adapt the own-mailbox to your needs!
My CV My website

Own-mailbox protects your privacy.

Protects the content of your emails.
Protects your relations: the information that you exchanged emails with another own-mailbox user.
Protects your anonymity and identity: the assocation between an email address and a real person.

Access from anywhere in the world.

When your Own-Mailbox is in your home, you can access your emails from anywhere in the world through a webmail interface, using standard email software or via your smartphone. However you choose to access it, your communications will be encrypted end-to-end with your Own-Mailbox to preserve your privacy.

How does it work?

Your Own-Mailbox stays at your home, encrypts and decrypts emails via GPG for you, and send them through tor when possible. You can communicate safely with your Own-Mailbox from anywhere in the world, thanks to HTTPS.

When talking to each other Own-Mailboxes exchange emails directly through the tor network. Both the content and meta-data are therefore protected. Each Own-Mailbox hosts a tor hidden service, for SMTP, HTTPS (webmail) and IMAPS. The webmail interface can be accessed directly through the tor browser.

In order to be compatible with the outside of the tor network, the Own-Mailbox project maintains a set of proxy servers (for SMTP and TLS). You will therefore be able to receive emails as you would with a normal email address, and access your webmail form a normal browser while keeping end-to-end encryption, with your Own-Mailbox.

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FAQ

The FAQ can only be seen on wider displays, please switch to portrait mode if you wish to see it!

Having a physical box under your control and hosting your email server, is essential in order to allow you to protect meta-data thanks to the tor network, and to allow you to encrypt emails safely while still being able to read and write them from anywhere in the world.
These services cannot be fully trusted, because they still give power to companies to spy on you.

Why is it not secure?

1-Encryption is done in JavaScript, and therefore relies on your browser's JavaScript engines, which 80% of the time [1] are proprietary software coming from Google, Microsoft, Apple, and most eminent NSA collaborators.

2-The JavaScript code may be changed at any time by the email service provider. So except if you check the JavaScript code sent to you each time before entering your password (which is impracticable), you leave the email service provider the possibility to retreive your private password at any moment, without you even necessarily knowing it (since you don't check it).

There is allready the example of the company Hushmail, who gave decrypted emails to the fed, thus proving that they had the power to do it. [2]
Your email address will be like surname@name.omb.one . The domain name name.omb.one will belong to your for free for life and will automatically point to your Own- Mailbox, even when you change IP.

You may also use your own domain name, then your address will be like surname.name@yourdomain .
Of Course!

By default ssh will only be accessible from local network though, for security reasons.
Because it gives everybody, the possibility to check in details, that the Own-Mailbox, does exactly what it claims to do without needing to trust us or anybody else. You have as much data as we have on the product, nothing is hidden.

This is an important condition for your Own-Mailbox to be yours not ours, and for you to be in control.
On your Own-Mailbox at home.
Own-Mailbox is designed to protect citizens against mass surveillance.

It is not designed to protect them against targeted surveillance, especially when a lot of money (sometimes hundreds of thousands dollars) and energy is spent for the targeted attack of one single individual. Those intensive targeted attacks can combine both virtual and real world means, and would never be used against a usual citizen.

It does not mean you cannot use an own-mailbox to protect yourself against an intensive targeted attack, or that it is not useful in that case, but you would need to know are doing, and be really careful both on-line and in the real world, because targeted attacks can use any means, even some that you would never think of.

Note that a targeted attack can only be done on a very limited number of people in the world, and therefore is very different from mass surveillance.

Each Own-Mailbox will generate automatically its SSL key at first setup and certify it thanks to Letsencrypt.
We do not do port forwarding. We use tor hidden services, which allows easily to run servers, even on a filtered connection, even if it does not have a static IP address, and even if it does not have any public IP at all.
Emails that need to be sent out of the tor network, will be relayed through our tor proxy server. So the reputation of your IP address is irrelevant. Only the reputation of our tor proxy server matters.
The software in the Own-Mailbox, is contained into a microsd card. You can easily open the box, and get the microsd card in order to check the software image, or even change it with your own version.
Your private keys (GPG, SSL and Tor) are located on your Own- Mailbox at your home. You can make copies to a USB key thanks to the USB port.

Your SSL key is generated at first setup.
Your Tor key is generated at first setup.
Your GPG key is generated when you create a new email account.
There is absolutely no way for us to have access to your private keys.
Yes!
It will be in the future. Then you can host on one Own-Mailbox user1@yourdomain.omb.one, user2@yourdomain.omb.one, user2@yourdomain.omb.one, ect...