ProtonMail and Anonymity

[Mirimir]

On 05/05/2019 03:12 AM, Stefan Claas wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> appologies for posting this, but I think it could
> be of interest for GnuPG users, because ProtoMail
> uses the OpenPGP protocol too.
> 
> Some of you may have signed up with ProtonMail and
> enjoy the service, due to it's ease of use and they
> think they are anonymous, when using this service.
> 
> At least ProtonMail says so on their main page.
> 
> I have a different understanding of what anonymous
> email is, because not only PGP usage but also the
> use of anonymous email services is a hobby of mine
> which I use since the mid 90's.
> 
> O.k. lets get started with a little test (I did a
> while ago):
> 
> Fire up Tor browser and register at the ProtonMail
> site for a free email account and use as a user
> name a string from random.org.
> 
> https://www.random.org/strings/
> 
> When ProtonMail ask you for verification (...????)
> of your email account select SMS and use as
> SMS service a free one like:

Well of course that's not anonymous!

So what you do, if you want ~anonymity, is to use their Tor onion site.
That doesn't ask for anything beyond an email address.

<SNIP>