6 top alternatives to Yahoo Mail
Not impressed by the latest news surrounding Yahoo? Ditch Ymail and try one of these instead
Still using Yahoo Mail? Apparently, the company has as many as three billion accounts - although that number may be about to decline drastically.
The allegations that the company built an app to enable it to scan all of its users' emails on request of US intelligence - without even contesting the demand - caps a week in which it was claimed that the company's security was so comprehensively breached that every last user credential was compromised.
And, while CEO Marissa Meyer is probably tied up with the company's acquisition by Verizon, it hasn't exactly convincingly refuted or rejected any of these claims.
So, if you feel it's time to take your email somewhere else - perhaps to a provider with a better reputation for security - what are your choices?
Hushmail ain't called Hushmail for nothing. It claims to offer a number of extra security measures to keep prying eyes from your email including, most of all, end-to-end encryption using OpenPGP. This is automatically turned on between users, and an option when sending email to non-users. It comes with 10GB storage and unlimited email aliases.
However, based in Canada and "fully hosted", Hushmail will still be subject to the usual "Five Eyes" government snooping. Some of its once-unique security options, such as two-factor authentication, have also been adopted elsewhere furthermore.
On top of that, you'll have to cough-up $49.98 in US dollars a year if you really want to use it.
Still interested?
Remember Hotmail? That was to the 1990s what Gmail is today.
Now rebranded Outlook, it provides single sign-on to various Microsoft online services - all the easier to keep track of everything you're doing online, especially as your mobile phone number is a non-negotiable demand when you sign up. However, if you want, you can choose to have an @Hotmail addy instead of a stuffy @Outlook one.
The user interface will be familiar to anyone who uses Outlook at work (ie: everyone), and it also offers a calendar and integrates with Skype should you want to talk to your contacts, as well as emailing them.
More importantly, it has a wide range of tools to help you manage your email, although the user interface could be better.
Run by Germany's United Internet, better known by the 1&1 brand name, GMX is an unfussy and reliable online email that also includes an address book (of course), an organiser and a spot of file storage. It claims around 20 million customers, and is also responsible for the mail.com portal.
Unfortunately, however, the spam filter seems to barely work, even with training, while 'power users' used to some of the features offered by Gmail and Outlook will be disappointed.
But it's quick and easy to set up an account and, frankly, pretty much the only proper free alternative to Google, Microsoft and Yahoo these days.
Google's Gmail is arguably the default online email client. Integrated with everything else Google does including ‘Hangouts', its interface takes a bit of getting used to, but offers more features once you get the hang of it.
Of course, if you don't like being followed around the internet by funny Uncle Google, you should probably give Gmail a miss, but they're pretty adamant that the email scanning they do for the purpose of showing you ads is all honest, above board, and not routinely shared with the CIA.
Sick of being spied on by the US and other western governments?
Why not sign up to Yandex and get spied on by the Russian government instead? While not exactly explicit on the matter, it does warn you on the sign-up page that everything will be governed by "Federal Law №152-FZ" - and the federal law it's referring to is Russian federal law, not US federal law.
It will demand your mobile number when you sign in or, if you refuse, you can give it your grandmother's date-of-birth as an authentication question instead.
If none of that puts you off, Yandex offers a neat, tidy and sensible interface as well as a ‘light' version, and Android and iOS apps.
If Hushmail ain't secure enough for you, how about ProtonMail? Based in Switzerland and, therefore, not subject to the data-collection whims of the NSA, GCHQ or even the SNB (notwithstanding the result of a recent referendum) it's the online email that Edward Snowden swears by.
While ProtonMail offers a free service, it is limited to just 500MB storage and 150 messages per day. Shelling out a €4 per monthly subscription will get you 5GB, your own domain and five aliases, and the ability to send 1,000 messages per day.
In return, ProtonMail will encrypt your emails on its server but will expect you to look after the decryption keys. In that way, ProtonMail can convincingly swear blind that there's no way it can help should law enforcement come knocking at the door bearing a court order.
That also means that if you forget your password there's no way of recovering your account and all your emails.
If that sounds too much hassle for you, you could always sign-up with AOL...