Hush Mail www.hushmail.com

Looking for a new email provider, after Hotmail refused to allow either my wife or I to access it whilst on holiday, and with more security on my mind 'Hush Mail' rapidly appeared from a web search.

So, I usually find a new digital service and add 'Review' to the result and press search again.

Hmmmm, the Canada Affair. This I vaguely recall, the email company in Canada that provided not only all the CONTENT of so called Hush Mail 'encrypted' emails to US lawyers, but also sent the user a fake email to obtain his password/key! Charming behavior.

But its encrypted, and my purposes are to keep nosey junk mailers and metrics thieves out of my affairs, rather than build futile castles on sand against the NSA/GCHQ, I'm not entirely put off.

I try the FREE ...(free free free!) Hush mail email sign up, and enter in the details.

Last... but obviously not least, detail. 'Please provide us with your phone number' !!! Because they will only complete the sign up using a phoned through code series.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Oh they're so funny. Protect my metrics data by giving out my phone number!! They must have fallen on hard times following the Canada Affair, and into cheap data mining now I guess.

Still they made me laugh!

The way it works is this: Hushmail uses a complex encryption system to ensure that the mail you send is only readable by the recipient. If the person you send the email to does not have a Hushmail account, then they will get an email with a link that they have to click. They are then taken to a web page with a question set by the sender on it. You can either make it simple and give them an easy question ("what city do I live in?"), or agree an answer in advance if you know the person - I text the answer to the recipient before I send the mail. When they answer the question they can then read the email and reply, which will be encrypted (but you will not have to answer a question).If the other party has Hushmail then no Q&A's are necessary, emails are scrambled and automatically decrypted.I do hope that all makes sense!Basically this is an excellent service if you exchange sensitive information with anybody. Standard email services such as Hotmail or Yahoo! are the equivalent of running down the street, clanging a bell and shouting your personal info to anyone who'll listen. Yes, I'm afraid that there's no such thing as confidentiality where emails are concerned. Many ISP's even keep copies of all mail sent via their SMTP servers.If you're concerned by this then Hushmail could be for you. I don't use it that much, but I make sure I log in at least once every three weeks because if you don't your account is suspended. If your account is suspended you then have to upgrade to 'Premium' in order to get at it.I must point out that if you're some kind of super-villain some controversy is raging in the US about Hushmail. It transpires that they will give your emails to the FBI if they ask for them. Luckily this doesn't affect the majority of us. The Premium service looks quite pricy, I haven't looked into it that much as I don't really need it.You can have fun setting questions for your friends to have to answer, and invite them to join to avoid all that. Good for those REALLY libelous emails.