Do you mean iCloud Mail? I assume it is as secure as all the other iCloud services themselves. Personally, I don't use iCloud (except for the "Find my" feature). But you can set up any third party Email service with the Apple's Mail app. I use Mailbox.org as email provider and have it set up with the Mail app on my iPhone. It works flawlessly. Third party email providers often come with additional costs (the lowest tier with Mailbox.org was 12 € each year when I switched from a freemail provider a couple of years ago). I don't know if iCloud Mail is free of charge, other than additional storage space.

[–] fosterj@lemmyusa.com 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Yes an iCloud email. I have an iCloud subscription already and I also use the Hidr my Email feature a lot. But everything right now is forwarded to Gmail.

So I’d like to just switch completely over to iCloud, maybe even have a hide my email for every account I have. I feel like Apple is one of the safer ones to go with because as far as I know (maybe I’m wrong) they aren’t in the business of selling user data.

I want private and safe, but also simple and easy. I wonder if Apple is a good balance here.

[–] nicerdicer@feddit.org 1 points 2 hours ago

Apples eco system does have pretty good safety features. As far as I have heard, Apple is indeed not up to sell user data outside their eco system. However, they collect data from their users and use it for their own purposes. It is always a good advice to go through each setting (of phone as well as laptop) and evaluate if it is needed for functionality (e.g. location services or access for the camera or contacts). Not only will this measurement reduce the amount of (usually) unneccessary data that is being transmitted otherwise, but it will also improve battery life as well.

[–] akalanka@masto.es 1 points 9 hours ago

@nicerdicer exactly, the only real #privacy gains with web-based providers is if you trust them, or if you personally encrypt all data locally and use PGP

I suggested #tutanota and #proton, because they do all the local encryption stuff for you, so, technically, they are a bit more private than the others, although you still kinda have to trust their web (or use their open-source apps only)

[–] thoughtcrime@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (2 children)

Do you mean an @icloud.com address?

[–] fosterj@lemmyusa.com 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Yes an iCloud email. I have an iCloud subscription already and I also use the Hidr my Email feature a lot. But everything right now is forwarded to Gmail.

I want private and safe, but also simple and easy. I wonder if Apple is a good balance here.

[–] thoughtcrime@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 hours ago

How techie are you? If the answer is not very much, then forget about this; but, if medium, then I would try to set up a custom domain so that all your emails are easy to migrate.

For example: you buy fosterj.me, and now, all your emails are like: hello@fosterj.me, service@fosterj.me, or even, lets say, university@fosterj.me

This way, you would only have a single migration to do (Gmail -> fosterj.com), and, from then on, you are independent to choose which provider to associate with.

For this providers, you have the following options (which, if not tech savvy, you can use without the custom domain, simply by registering, lets say, fosterj@icloud.com or fosterj@protonmail.com):

Apple: Ok, they don't sell your data, but they CAN do it and they hace access to all your mails
Protonmail or Tutanota: They DO NOT have access to your emails, only YOU can read them using their SEPARATE apps (so, no more apple mail app, but, in exchange, you are private from your provider)

I would personally recommend ProtonMail + Custom Domain, or simply ProtonMail, but it depends on what you can and w@nt to do :p

I hope I was clear, feel free to ask me for more clarifications!

Tagging @akalanka@masto.es for more context

[–] akalanka@masto.es 2 points 10 hours ago

@thoughtcrime I don't think that provides much more privacy per-se, at least when compared to GMail. I would try @Tutanota or @protonprivacy , although the latter have had some PR drama recently