General questions

• Why PrivaSphere Secure Messaging Service can be considered as secure?
  Messages while transmitting are protected by a 128-bit SSL encryption which in the industry is considered as virtually impossible to break. Sender and recipients are authenticated.
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• Who can I securely reach with PrivaSphere?
  With PrivaSphere Secure Messaging Service you can, for the first time, securely communicate with your customers and reach any email address owner via email, without the need for complex setup. No need to install hardware, software or certificates. No potentially harmful executable self decrypting files.
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• Do recipients of my message(s) have to sign up to see the message?
  Recipients of your messages do not need to sign up with PrivaSphere, however they will need a MUC to authenticate and gain access to each individual message. Generally it is more convenient to sign up and to have trust established with your recipients. It is FREE to sign up and to receive messages.
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• I am concerned about my messages stored on your server(s). How secure is this?
  All the messages going through PrivaSphere Secure Messaging Service are stored on our servers for up to 30 days. Any message residing on our servers is securely encrypted so that no one, not even the system administrators, can decrypt it without the correct password. When you delete a message from your account or it expires, it is removed from our servers.
  As an option you may upload your personal public secure email certificate (PGP or S/MIME) into your PrivaSphere user profile. In this case you can have your messages securely forwarded to your email client and deleted from our servers as soon as they are sent. (TBD - only if all recipients do this and we enable immediate erasure)
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• I am concerned about downloading software that may conflict with other software programs. What can I do?
  You will like PrivaSphere Secure Messaging Service. We do not require software to be downloaded and installed.
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• How about other companies that offer "secure messaging"?
  Most companies that offer secure messaging merely offer security enhancing extensions to their email services, for example a secure login to their webmail service. This may improve the security between you and the provider, but does not provide any security for your messages once they have left the bounds of the provider's servers, nor do they provide encryption or digital signatures unless you install secure email software onto your computer and get a PGP or S/MIME public key or certificate. To be secure, the message needs to be protected all along the way. Sender and receiver need to be authenticated. Be sure to check the details of the services you are considering before making your decision.
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• What payment methods do you accept?
  
  • We accept payment via credit card or bank account through PayPal.com
  • We accept bank transfers for payment (minimum 50 CHF).
  • Contact our sales department, if you want to be billed (minimum 100 CHF).
  
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• How about technical support?
  Our support team responds promptly and will help solve any problem that you may have with our service. They are always available via email.
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• Will I be advised of server down time due to scheduled maintenance in advance?
  We post on our website scheduled down time in advance.
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• How can I cancel the service?
  If you need to cancel your account at PrivaSphere, please contact our support team.
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Integration into standard email application

• How can I receive mails securely in my email client?
  If you want to receive your messages directly in your email client, you will need a certificate. We recommend getting a S/MIME secure email certificate from a third party such as TC Trustcenter or Thawte. PrivaSphere supports the import of S/MIME certificates and can extract any authentication information about you included therein to further fortify your account.
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• Do you support SMTP?
  You can send email to anyone using PrivaSphere's SMTP servers out of your own email client (like Outlook). In order to prevent our servers from being used for sending spam, we only relay email from known users -- you must specify your username and password when connecting to our SMTP server.
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MUC - "Message Unlock Code"

• What is a MUC? Why do I need to send a MUC with my first message to a new recipient?
  MUC stands for message unlock code. By communicating the MUC to your recipient, you will avoid that a person with a similar email address to your recipient's gets access to your confidential message. It does the first time authentication and establishes trust of your new online relation.
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Troubleshooting

• When I return after a while to my PrivaSphere application the system has logged me off?
  Your session expires automatically after 20 min without activity. This helps to prevent that an unauthorized person is using the system under your identity.
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• When I want to enter my user_id, the preprinted text 'User (e-mail address)'' does not disappear?
  Select the text and delete it. PrivaSphere Secure Messaging Service doesn't use Java Script for an increased privacy. This unfortunately comes with certain minor convenience trade offs.
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• Why do I need a MUC? I already have registered with PrivaSphere and have a password.
  Most likely you did not yet receive any message from this particular sender. After this first message, you will not need any MUC any longer.
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• I try to send a message out of my outlook mail client and get the message: "Your outgoing (SMTP) server does not support SSL-secured connections. If SSL-secured connections have worked in the past, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP)."
  Some antivirus software does not like you to send encrypted mails
  1. Turn off antivirus checking of outgoing mail
  2. Restart Mail application
  Alternative: Use PrivaSphere Webmail interface instead or change to a non-confidentiality inhibiting antivirus solution.
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