There are some who are concerned about US authorities’ ability to monitor their citizens’ data. According to the EU report “Fighting cyber crime and protecting privacy in the cloud” (PDF, 1.3 MB), a little known piece of legislation could give US authorities the right to access foreign users’ data stored in the US as well.

Data stored outside the US, for instance in Norway where all the Runbox email servers are located, is not affected by this legislation.

If you have any concerns about the privacy of your Runbox email, please see our Privacy Policy and our article Email Privacy and Offshore Email.

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Recently the Norwegian Data Protection Authority concluded that usage of Google Analytics might be illegal in Norway.

As Runbox is based in and operates from Norway, a number of our users has expressed concerns regarding whether Runbox does use Google Analytics and how.

Runbox users do not need to worry. We have stopped using any type of Analytics and you can read about it here.

Runbox does indeed use Google Analytics on public pages, such as www.runbox.com to gain statistical information about where visitors come from, how much time they spend reading various public pages, e.g. about our pricing plans etc. However, Runbox does not use Google Analytics on logged-in pages.

Norway gives strong protection to personal data and Runbox has a strict privacy policy. Runbox does not allow third parties to access your information. Therefore, once a user reached the pages which require authentication, neither Google Analytics nor any other third party service is allowed to monitor their activity, as theoretically such third party could obtain information about user’s private information, such as their contacts and email contents. At Runbox we guard users’ privacy and such leak of information would be non-acceptable.

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In an independent.co.uk article, Google chief Eric Schmidt expresses concerns over the amount of personal data people publish online without considering the possible privacy implications.

Personal data will increasingly become a monetizing commodity among the social network and search engine services, while privacy and protection from data exploitation will diminish until its true value is appreciated.

While social network services bring functionality that allow people to connect in new and unexpected ways, email is inherently private and personal to the sender and recipient, as long as that privacy is enforced with a balanced policy.

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