Hushmail Review

Hushmail has free webmail services as well as paid email accounts. This Hushmail review has information on Hushmail's secure email claim, free webmail services, paid email features, and other terms you should know about Hushmails free email service.

Hushmail's claim to your attention is that their free email is - so they claim - secure. Newer to the market than AOL and HotMail, they are focused on a different market, and offers several upgrade packages so that if your need outgrows their free offerings, you do not necessarily need to make a service change and have to shift all your email to a new system. Being able to grow from free service to a premium service may be particularly useful for a business start-up. But it is recommended that you read the entire review before you decide.

Hushmail's secure service claim has two parts:

• Email you send and receive is encrypted, virus free (because scanned) and spam free (because filtered). You have the option of not encrypting your email if privacy isn't important in a particular instance. You are the only one who can decrypt your email.
• A contact form that is secure means that private information can reach you from others who do not, themselves, use Hushmail.

Now, obviously, this means that Hushmail uses their free email to bring in customers who will then become paying customers. So let's now focus on what you get for free. We already mentioned the virus checking and spam filtering. In addition, you can look for:

• Hushmail offers file storage, but has a limit of 2 megabytes (MB). (Upgrade can get you 250 MB of storage space.)
• File attachments up to 15 MB for outgoing mail and 25 MB for incoming mail. Like email, file attachments are encrypted, but only if they are sent between Hushmail users.
• Digital signatures are available.

However, there are some other terms you should know about:

• Three weeks of inactivity will result in account deactivation. Newly created accounts may be deactivated if not accessed within a few hours of creation. In addition, Hushmail can, by its terms of service, delete your account at any time without warning and without cause and without notice. Hushmail may take this action without storing or forwarding your stored information.
• The space limitations imposed in the free service may result in either outgoing or incoming mail not being processed.

These service elements may make this free service risky for those whose email is tied to a business or is crucial for other reasons.