Why email lacks the security of text messages

Many users take for granted that messages sent via popular apps like WhatsApp or iMessage are end-to-end encrypted (E2EE), meaning only the sender and receiver can access content. However, this high level of privacy protection is largely absent in email.

Major email providers such as Google's Gmail, Apple's iCloud Mail, Microsoft's Outlook, and Yahoo Mail do not support E2EE for personal accounts. While these services employ encryption for messages in transit and at rest on their servers, they retain the encryption keys. This grants them the potential to access email content, either voluntarily or under legal orders.

With E2EE, the service provider does not possess the keys to decrypt messages; only the sender and receiver do. This offers superior privacy and security. The absence of E2EE in email is largely due to practical reasons. Email is an older technology designed for universal compatibility across services. Implementing E2EE would break this interoperability, making it difficult to send emails between different providers.

Furthermore, email services' ability to filter spam and phishing attempts would be compromised. Features like server-side search, which relies on the service reading email content, would also be significantly hindered. Users would need to download all their emails to their devices to perform searches.

For individuals prioritizing privacy, alternative solutions exist. Services like Proton Mail and Tuta Mail offer E2EE by default for emails sent between their own users. For messages to users on other platforms, a password-protected link can be sent, directing the recipient to a secure web page to decrypt the message.