Tutanota Launches New Encrypted Tool to Support Press Freedom

A secure email provider has announced the release of a new product designed to help whistleblowers get their information to the media. The tool is free for journalists.

Tutanota helps you protect your privacy

Tutanota Logo

Tutanota is a German-based company that provides “world’s most secure email service, easy to use and private by design.” They offer end-to-end encryption for their secure email service. Recently Tutanota announced a desktop app for their email service.

They also make use of two-factor authentication and open source the code that they use.

While you can get an account for free, you don’t have to worry about your information being sold or seeing ads. Tutanota makes money by charging for extra features and storage. They also offer solutions for non-profit organizations.

Tutanota has launched a new service to further help journalists, social activists and whistleblowers in communicating securely.

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Secure Connect: An encrypted form for websites

Secure Communication

Tutanota has released a new piece of software named Secure Connect. Secure Connect is “an open source encrypted contact form for news sites”. The goal of the project is to create a way so that “whistleblowers can get in touch with journalists securely”. Tutanota picked the right day because May 3rd is the Day of Press Freedom.

According to Tutanota, Secure Connect is designed to be easily added to websites, but can also work on any blog to ensure access by smaller news agencies. A whistleblower would access Secure Connect app on a news site, preferably using Tor, and type in any information that they want to bring to light. The whistleblower would also be able to upload files. Once they submit the information, Secure Connect will assign a random address and password, “which lets the whistleblower re-access his sent message at a later stage and check for replies from the news site.”

Secure Connect Encrypted Contact Form
Secure Connect Encrypted Contact Form

While Tutanota will be offering Secure Connect to journalists for free, they know that someone will have to foot the bill. They plan to pay for further development of the project by selling it to businesses, such as “lawyers, financial institutions, medical institutions, educational institutions, and the authorities”. Non-journalists would have to pay €24 per month.

You can see a demo of Secure Connect, by clicking here. If you are a journalist interested in adding Secure Connect to your website or blog, you can contact them at [email protected] Be sure to include a link to your website.

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Final Thoughts on Secure Connect

I have read repeatedly about whistleblowers whose identities were accidentally exposed, either by themselves or others. Tutanota’s project looks like it would remove that possibility by making it impossible for others to discover their identity. It also gives both parties an easy way to exchange information without having to worry about encryption or PGP keys.

I understand that it’s not the same as Firefox Send, another encrypted file sharing program from Mozilla. The only question I have is whose servers will the whistleblowers’ information be sitting on?

Do you think that Tutanota’s Secure Connect will be a boon for whistleblowers and activists? Please let us know in the comments below.

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