Skiff (email service)

Last updated

Skiff (email service)
Skiff 2023 Logo.svg
Type of site
 Webmail
Owner Notion
Created byAndrew Milich; Jason Ginsberg
Parent Notion
URL skiff.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationNo longer accepted
Users ≈2 million users (2023, November)
Launched2022;2 years ago (2022)
Current statusActive, defunct as of February 9, 2024
Content license
 Open Source

Skiff was an email service startup company and collaboration tool, that provides privacy-friendly end-to-end encrypted Email and Cloud services. [1] [2] [3] The company's commercial strategy is focused in offering to its clients a Source-Available or Open-Source, transparent and audited Email, Calendar, and Cloud Storage services without trackers or advertisements. [4]

Contents

Skiff launched in 2021 and was developed in San Francisco, California. [5] In November 2023, 17 months after launch, it reached almost 2 million users. [6]

Skiff was acquired by Notion on 9 February 2024. Users had have six months to migrate their data before the closure of the services. [7] [8] [9] [10] The service mostly shut down on the 9 August 2024 with email forwarding staying active until 9 February 2025

History

Skiff was founded by Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg in 2020 and was initially focused on providing a secure document editing service similar to Google Docs. [11] While Skiff was in beta, the founders released a public whitepaper explaining how Skiff’s encryption works. [12] [13] Skiff had its public launch out of beta in November 2021. A difference from other services was that it stored its files using the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). [14]

Skiff Mail and Skiff Drive were launched in 2022. [15] [16]

In February 2024, Notion acquired Skiff and it is no longer open for registration. All user data will be deleted 6 months after the purchase date, but emails sent to @skiff.com emails will continue to forward to another inbox until February 9th of 2025. [17]

Software

Some of Skiff’s code is source-available with some libraries being open source. [18] [19] Skiff uses public-key authenticated encryption for secure and private access to end-to-end encrypted documents, files and emails. [20] [21] Skiff also allows users to send payments through MetaMask. [22]

Reviews

In a 2023 article, PCMAG reviewed Skiff pointing that Skiff offers "End-to-end encryption for email, collaboration, and calendar", making complements to the fact of its services being free and easy to use (while being available as Apps for macOS, Android, and iOS). [23] Moreover, it also was pointed the "cons" of Skiff services "requiring four separate mobile apps" and having "no encrypted email with nonusers". [23] However, Skiff notably added PGP encryption support in December 2023. [24] [25]

PCMAG's final score review was "4.5/5 Outstanding". [23]

Controversies

According with a WSJ article published in 2023, allegedly the Russian government banned Skiff from Russia, because of Skiff's end-to-end encryption business model, which is illegal in Russia. (And also due to the company's persistence in not handing over users data for the Russian Government, thus allegedly compromising the safety of its citizens). [26] As a result Skiff faced a 81% drop in traffic from Russia, and Andrew Milich itself stated that Skiff's engineers were scrambling to find ways to restore access to Russian users after the occurrence. [26]

Related Research Articles

Hushmail is an encrypted proprietary web-based email service offering PGP-encrypted e-mail and vanity domain service. Hushmail uses OpenPGP standards. If public encryption keys are available to both recipient and sender, Hushmail can convey authenticated, encrypted messages in both directions. For recipients for whom no public key is available, Hushmail will allow a message to be encrypted by a password and stored for pickup by the recipient, or the message can be sent in cleartext. In July 2016, the company launched an iOS app that offers end-to-end encryption and full integration with the webmail settings. The company is located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gmail</span> Email service provided by Google

Gmail is the email service provided by Google. As of 2019, it had 1.5 billion active users worldwide, making it the largest email service in the world. It also provides a webmail interface, accessible through a web browser, and is also accessible through the official mobile application. Google also supports the use of third-party email clients via the POP and IMAP protocols.

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of notable webmail providers who offer a web interface in English.

Google Workspace is a collection of cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools, software and products developed and marketed by Google. It consists of Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, Meet and Chat for communication; Drive for storage; and the Google Docs Editors suite for content creation. An Admin Panel is provided for managing users and services. Depending on edition Google Workspace may also include the digital interactive whiteboard Jamboard and an option to purchase add-ons such as the telephony service Voice.

Email encryption is encryption of email messages to protect the content from being read by entities other than the intended recipients. Email encryption may also include authentication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outlook.com</span> Microsoft webmail service

Outlook.com, formerly Hotmail, is a free personal email service offered by Microsoft. This includes a webmail interface featuring mail, calendaring, contacts, and tasks services. Outlook can also be accessed via email clients using the IMAP or POP protocols.

LastPass is a password manager application. The standard version of LastPass comes with a web interface, but also includes plugins for various web browsers and apps for many smartphones. It also includes support for bookmarklets.

Tresorit is a cloud storage platform that offers functions for administration, storage, synchronization, and transfer of data using end-to-end encryption.

Wickr is an American software company based in New York City. It is known for its instant messaging application of the same name. The Wickr instant messaging apps allow users to exchange end-to-end encrypted and content-expiring messages, and are designed for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems. Wickr was acquired by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in mid-2021. The free version of the app was discontinued in December 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proton Mail</span> End-to-end encrypted email service

Proton Mail is a Swiss end-to-end encrypted email service founded in 2013 headquartered in Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland. It uses client-side encryption to protect email content and user data before they are sent to Proton Mail servers, unlike other common email providers such as Gmail and Outlook.com. The service can be accessed through a webmail client, the Tor network, Windows, macOS and Linux (beta) desktop apps and iOS and Android apps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Threema</span> Instant messaging smartphone service

Threema is a paid cross-platform encrypted instant messaging app developed by Threema GmbH in Switzerland and launched in 2012. The service operates on a decentralized architecture and offers end-to-end encryption. Users can make voice and video calls, send photos, files, and voice notes, share locations, and make groups. Unlike many other popular secure messaging apps, Threema does not require phone numbers or email addresses for registration, only a one-time purchase that can be paid via an app store or anonymously with Bitcoin or cash.

Wire Swiss GmbH is a software company with headquarters in Zug, Switzerland. Its development center is in Berlin, Germany. The company is best known for its messaging application called Wire.

Client-side encryption is the cryptographic technique of encrypting data on the sender's side, before it is transmitted to a server such as a cloud storage service. Client-side encryption features an encryption key that is not available to the service provider, making it difficult or impossible for service providers to decrypt hosted data. Client-side encryption allows for the creation of applications whose providers cannot access the data its users have stored, thus offering a high level of privacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuta (email)</span> Free and open-source end-to-end encrypted email software and host

Tuta, formerly Tutanota, is an end-to-end encrypted email app and a freemium secure email service. The service is advertisement-free; it relies on donations and premium subscriptions. As of June 2023, Tutanota's owners claimed to have over 10 million users of the product. The company announced a transition to 100% renewable electricity in March 2019. This decision coincided with employee participation in Fridays for Future protests. On 1st October 2024, Tuta launched its standalone encrypted calendar app. Tuta Mail has recently integrated post-quantum cryptography features through its new protocol - TutaCrypt replacing standard encryption methods like RSA-2048 and AES-256 for its newly created accounts after March 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mailfence</span> Encrypted email service

Mailfence is secure encrypted email service that offers OpenPGP based end-to-end encryption and digital signatures. It was launched in November 2013 by Belgium-based company ContactOffice Group that has been operating an online collaboration suite since 1999.

Wire is an encrypted communication and collaboration app created by Wire Swiss. It is available for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, and web browsers such as Firefox. Wire offers a collaboration suite featuring messenger, voice calls, video calls, conference calls, file-sharing, and external collaboration – all protected by a secure end-to-end-encryption. Wire offers three solutions built on its security technology: Wire Pro – which offers Wire's collaboration feature for businesses, Wire Enterprise – includes Wire Pro capabilities with added features for large-scale or regulated organizations, and Wire Red – the on-demand crisis collaboration suite. They also offer Wire Personal, which is a secure messaging app for personal use.

Proton AG is a Swiss technology company offering privacy-focused online services. It was founded in 2014 by a group of scientists who met at CERN and created Proton Mail.

NordLocker is a file encryption software integrated with end-to-end encrypted cloud storage. It is available on Windows and macOS. NordLocker is developed by Nord Security, the Lithuania-based company behind the NordVPN virtual private network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canary Mail</span> Email client

Canary Mail is an email client that offers artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities backed by technology from OpenAI & Cohere, as well as open-source language models from Hugging Face. The app is available on Windows, macOS, Android, and IOS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proton Pass</span> Password management software

Proton Pass is a password manager developed by the Swiss software company Proton AG. It stores login credentials, email aliases, credit card data, passkeys, 2FA secret keys, and notes in virtual vaults that are encrypted using 256-bit AES-GCM.

References

  1. ↑ Newman, Jared (June 27, 2022). "I'd love to dump Gmail for this slick, private email–but there's a catch". Fast Company. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
  2. ↑ "Skiff bags $10.5M to build private/collaborative workspaces". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
  3. ↑ Pierce, David (May 17, 2022). "Skiff Mail is taking on Gmail by betting on privacy — and crypto". The Verge. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
  4. ↑ "Skiff - Private, encrypted, secure email - 10 GB free". skiff.com. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
  5. ↑ "Skiff Banks $10.5M for E2E Encrypted Workplace Collaboration | SecurityWeek.Com". www.securityweek.com. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
  6. ↑ "Skiff's Official Twitter Account". Twitter. November 18, 2023.
  7. ↑ "Skiff - Private, encrypted, secure email - 10 GB free". skiff.com. Retrieved February 10, 2024.
  8. ↑ andrew-skiff (February 9, 2024). "Skiff x Notion". r/Skiff. Retrieved February 10, 2024.
  9. ↑ Mehta, Ivan (February 10, 2024). "Notion acquires privacy-focused productivity platform Skiff". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 11, 2024.
  10. ↑ Kothari, Akshay (February 9, 2024). "Meet Skiff, the newest member of the Notion family". Notion. Retrieved February 11, 2024.
  11. ↑ "Skiff, an end-to-end encrypted alternative to Google Docs, raises $3.7M seed". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
  12. ↑ "Skiff – Security Whitepaper - Read more". skiff.com. Retrieved February 18, 2024.
  13. ↑ "Skiff Whitepaper" (PDF). Retrieved February 18, 2024.
  14. ↑ Newman, Jared (November 15, 2021). "This privacy-first document editor has a wild new way of storing files". Fast Company. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
  15. ↑ Pierce, David (May 17, 2022). "Skiff Mail is taking on Gmail by betting on privacy — and crypto". The Verge. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
  16. ↑ "10GB de stockage gratuit et chiffré avec Skiff Drive - TOOLinux". www.toolinux.com. June 17, 2022. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
  17. ↑ Mehta, Ivan (February 10, 2024). "Notion acquires privacy-focused productivity platform Skiff". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 12, 2024.
  18. ↑ "Skiff is launching Skiff Mail to take on Gmail with encryption | #emailsecurity | #phishing | #ransomware". NATIONAL CYBER SECURITY NEWS TODAY. May 18, 2022. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
  19. ↑ "skiff-apps/LICENSE at main · skiff-org/skiff-apps". GitHub. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  20. ↑ Daniel, Alan (May 26, 2021). "Skiff Is Here To Make Work Privacy Great Again". geekinsider.com. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
  21. ↑ "Skiff Review". PCMAG. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
  22. ↑ "Skiff Mail fait concurrence à Gmail en se concentrant sur la confidentialité et la cryptographie" (in French). May 22, 2022. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
  23. 1 2 3 "Skiff Review". PCMAG. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
  24. ↑ "A modernized approach to your PGP encryption". www.skiff.com. June 21, 2024. Retrieved June 21, 2024.
  25. ↑ "Skiff's Official Twitter Account". Twitter. December 18, 2023.
  26. 1 2 "Encryption Bans . . . What Is This, Russia?". The Wall Street Journal. February 3, 2023.
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