At Runbox we are pleased to be able to provide you with secure email services. In order to maintain the security of email communications it is necessary to continually review how email systems connect and communicate with each other, and this includes how you connect to our service to send and receive email.

Encryption is important

When you connect to our service using an email program (such as Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Mail etc.) the connection between the email program and our mail servers is encrypted so that nobody can intercept your username, password or email message content.

It’s important to use updated software that supports modern encryption methods to prevent that encryption from being broken and compromised as hackers increasingly use more and more powerful computers and techniques to decrypt data.

As such we will end support for outdated encryption methods to ensure that we provide the latest and most secure encryption between your email program and our service. This also helps us prevent unauthorised access to our servers and helps keep the Runbox service safe for all customers.

On 1 July 2019 we will retire some very old encryption protocols
and this might affect some older email programs.

The technical details

We will be retiring support for TLS 1.0 and 1.1 and will only support TLS 1.2 or later. TLS 1.2 has been around for 10 years so there has been a long time for email programs to adopt the use of this type of encryption. TLS is Transport Layer Security and is the encryption that protects your data. However, you don’t need to understand much about this to make any necessary changes.

Your email program

Most email programs that were released in the last 5 years will be compatible with the latest encryption. It is important to use the latest versions of email programs as the developers of those programs will have corrected bugs that could be a security issue. Where possible it is also advisable that you use the latest version of your computer’s operating system.

We have tested the email programs below and they all work with the most modern encryption that we use with our servers.

• Outlook 2013 and later (Windows and macOS)
• Thunderbird (Windows and macOS)
• Apple Mail (macOS)
• Windows Mail (Windows)
• eM Client (Windows and macOS)
• Gmail app (Android)
• Mail app (iOS)
• Maildroid (Android)

Many other email programs will also work with our service and those listed above are just commonly used ones that we have tested.

Further details and help

If you need any help on this issue, or would like us to offer advice on the email program you are using please get in touch with us.

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When you read this blog post, you will see https://blog.runbox.com in your web browser’s address bar. Our domain name is runbox.com and domains are used in this way to make the Internet easier to use. The Internet uses IP (Internet Protocol) addresses to route information from one place to another. Without domains you would need to know the IP address of the server that this page is delivered from (http://91.220.196.127).

The same is true with email addresses. If you send a message to support@nullrunbox.com, the sending mail service can work out from @runbox.com that our mail server (mx.runbox.com) has IP address 91.220.196.211.

Domains also mean that if we change our network in a way that means our IP addresses change we don’t need to tell you to remember different IP addresses as we can just point our domain at the new addresses.

Changing email provider

When choosing an email provider once of the biggest concerns expressed to us by new customers is the fact they might need to change their existing email address and tell all the people they use that address with. There are some ways that Runbox can help smooth any transition such as this, and some things you might be able to do at your current email provider:

• Forward email from your old email provider to your new Runbox account, but reply from your Runbox address to give people time to add your new address to their address book.
• Use the Runbox POP retrieve feature to download new messages from your old account in to your Runbox account.
• Use the Runbox IMAP Import feature to move all your existing messages from your old email provider to Runbox.

Never change your email address again

However, as you move to Runbox, why not make changing your email address the last time you ever do this?

We would be very happy for you to stay with Runbox for as long as you like and never need to change your @runbox.com email address. However, sometimes there are good reasons why you might need to use a different email provider, or you may want to use another email provider in addition to Runbox (e.g. for business reasons). This might mean you can’t use your @runbox.com address as you don’t own the domain and can’t configure it to work as you need.

The one sure way to avoid that problem and to have maximum control and flexibility over your email services is to register your own domain.

Registering a domain – an address for life

Domains are not expensive to register and the Runbox services can work with any domain you choose to own. We offer personal support to register your domain and to help you get it up and running. You can use a domain for both email and a website, and Runbox has web hosting packages if you decide you also need a website.

Once you have your own domain, you can have an email address for life.

To find out which domains might be available for you to register, you can go to Account >> Domain Hosting in your Runbox account and use the search feature to find out if a domain you are interested in is available.

Domains cost as little as USD 14.95 per year for a .com domain, and once you have your own domain it is yours to use for as long as you like and with any email provider you like whether you are a Runbox customer or not.

Help and support

If you have any questions about registering domains, please contact us at support@nullrunbox.com or via our support website at https://support.runbox.com

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When you access web pages and other services such as email a whole range of things go on in the background to ensure that your request for a web page or accessing your email is achieved no matter where you are in the World, or which Internet Service Provider (ISP) you are using at the time. As part of that process, the companies that provide these services can do some useful things to ensure that your access is as fast and as reliable as possible.

Edge services

One thing service providers can do is make use of edge services that move data and processing closer to the location of the device you are using. This will mean that when you access the service the route that the data takes is shorter geographically, and that a central data centre is not having to handle all the network traffic and processing. This reduces the time it takes from when you perform some action on your device to when you get the response from the service. This is often referred to as latency.

As more and more devices become connected to the Internet, and 5G mobile services are rolled out fast responsiveness will become increasingly important for providing a good experience.

Runbox and edge services

Despite all the benefits of edge services and why they are used, we are pleased to say that Runbox doesn’t use any of them – and for good reason.

We understand that privacy and knowing who looks after you data is important to you as a Runbox customer, and to that end we are happy to say that we can offer you the confidence of knowing where your email is stored no matter where you access it from.

We only store your email on servers that are located in a data centre in Oslo, Norway. In addition to our own security features, it is protected by the highly regarded legislation of Norway which is very focused on the privacy of communications and data more generally.

All networks point to Norway

When you access your email with an email program or via our web interface data to and from your phone is routed between your location and Oslo, and the only place your data can be accessed from is the servers in Oslo.

Between you and our data centre the data can travel across many networks with your current ISP at one end and ours at the Oslo end. However, all our services encrypt your data between your device and our servers and this means the email content isn’t readable as it passes through the ISPs that provide your connection to us.

We believe that rather than distributing your data to data centres around the World, it is important for it to be treated as a valuable commodity and give it location specific protection. This means all access to your data is in accordance with Norwegian law.

Internet routing

Runbox doesn’t control the entire route of your data to our servers, and the further from Oslo you are the less influence our choice of ISPs has on the route your data takes.

The geographical distance between you and our servers can make a difference to how responsive our servers appear to be. This is because of the number of ISPs and routers involved in the network between you and us, as well as the quality and speed of the service those ISPs provide.

Usually this doesn’t cause any significant issues and we have happy customers in 170 countries including Australia and New Zealand, which is about a far as you can get from Oslo. However, sometimes it can cause an issue and we can help customers try to deal with this if they contact us.

Speeding up your email access

While we are pleased to offer the certainty of knowing where you data is stored, we are also keen to make sure that you have a good experience using Runbox.

Using an email program like Thunderbird, Outlook or Apple Mail and therefore having your mail stored on your device can improve access to your messages. Doing this means that instead of having to download details for all of your messages each time you access your account, mail that has already been downloaded to your device is already there and only new messages need to be fetched from the server.

Using an email program is a great idea for many reasons and not just because it helps solve potential network issues, but also because of the ability to manage more than one email account in the same interface, use the local search capabilities of the email program and access previous messages when you don’t have an Internet connection.

And now we can speed up your web access too

Recently we’ve introduced local storage to the Runbox webmail in the form of the Runbox 7 web app. When you log in to the new interface you will be given the choice to download an index of all your messages that will be stored in your web browser. This index will remain there and be updated as new mail arrives until you decide to delete it. We also pre-load the content of the messages that are shown in your message list so that when you open the message the content is already on your device ready to be shown to you. This makes Runbox 7 a very fast webmail client with excellent search capabilities.

Know where your email is, wherever you are

So not only do you have the peace of mind knowing where your email is stored when it arrives in your account, but you also have the option to store it securely on your own personal devices for even greater performance.

This means you don’t need to worry about what edge services are doing with your data, because with Runbox you know where your email is, wherever you are!

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How we did it and what we learned on the way

In our blog post May 25, 2018 we described the main areas of Runbox’ GDPR implementation.

On this Data Privacy Day we’d like to update you on our GDPR implementation, how we did it, and what we learned on the way.

There is an enormous amount of information out there describing GDPR content, simple copies of the regulation, some templates of varying quality – and a lot of warnings.

So first of all, let’s recap what the GDPR is.

What is the GDPR, and why did it come about?

In 2012, the European Union (EU) first proposed a set of rules for protection of data inside and outside the EU. An important reason for this decision was a desire to improve the ability for individuals to control data registered about themselves.

In 2016, the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) was formally adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union to take effect for all individuals within the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA).

Runbox’ approach to the GDPR

At Runbox, which is located in the privacy bastion Norway and within the EEA, we started the GDPR planning and implementation process as early as 2014.

At that point in time, we had followed the process in the EU about a comprehensive reform of the EU’s 1995 data protection rules. In the spring of 2014, the European Parliament demonstrated strong support for the GDPR proposal set forward by the Article 29 Working Party. (You can find more information about the history of the GDPR in the article The History of the General Data Protection Regulation.) Shortly thereafter, in September 2014, our GDPR Compliancy Project was launched.

We didn’t know at that time when the GDPR would take effect, but we knew the direction – that is: The GDPR was indicated to move in the direction of existing Norwegian privacy regulations, based on Article 29 Working Party documents.

Our GDPR project plan

We structured our implementation project in 14 partly parallel sub-projects, and after the decision by the European Parliament and of the Council by April 27, 2016, we updated our project plan towards the target date May 25, 2018.

We started out mapping exactly our position compared to Article 29 proposal, which in 2015 was replaced by The European Data Protection Board, and then we went ahead to work out our main planning document, Rules and Regulations for Information Security Management.

The groundwork was done, and we proceeded the project towards fulfillment of our obligations regarding privacy under the new legislation, implemented in Norwegian law by July 20, 2018.

We will share more information in forthcoming blog posts, so stay tuned!

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