Posteo
Posteo is an unusually privacy-friendly email service that collects virtually no personal information about you, never logs your IP address, and keeps payment data completely separate from your account, meaning it has almost nothing to hand over even if authorities demand it. The service is entirely free of ads, trackers, and third-party analytics, and you can optionally encrypt your stored data so that even Posteo cannot read it. On the downside, if someone else misuses your account you bear the burden of proving you were not responsible for any resulting fees, and Posteo can change its terms at any time, though you are free to leave immediately if you disagree. All disputes are subject to German law, the service offers no uptime guarantee, and payment receipts must be retained for ten years as required by law.
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Heads up: this analysis is AI-generated, can be incomplete or wrong, and is not legal advice. Use it as a starting point and read the original document before you agree — see our Terms.
Clause-by-clause breakdown
Every clause we flagged in Posteo's agreement, with what it means for you.
Payment receipts are kept 10 years and cannot be deleted.
“For tax purposes, we are legally required to keep receipts of all payments for 10 years. Receipts are only kept for this purpose. In accordance with GDPR article 17 you have the right to demand the immediate deletion of personal data that is saved within a company in relation to you. [...] Payment data cannot be deleted upon your request as it would conflict with legal requirement of retaining this information for 10 years for tax authorities. Payment details are not connected with email accounts and therefore do not exist in connection with your account. We only keep payment data for tax purposes. This data cannot be deleted.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Payment receipts (which may include your name and IBAN from a bank transfer) are kept for 10 years due to German tax law. You cannot request deletion of this data. However, Posteo emphasises this data is not linked to your email account and is held solely for tax compliance — not for profiling or marketing.
What you can do: If anonymity is critical, consider paying by cash letter, which minimises the personal data contained in the receipt.
Posteo can change terms, but you can exit immediately if disadvantaged.
“1.2. Customers will be informed of any changes. If changes occur that are to the disadvantage of the customer, they can terminate the relationship without notice. Posteo also advises customers of their right to terminate in the notification of changes.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Posteo can change its Terms of Service unilaterally, but if the changes are to your disadvantage, you are given the right to terminate immediately without penalty. This is notably more user-friendly than the typical 'continued use equals acceptance' clause, because it explicitly preserves your right to exit.
What you can do: Read any change notifications Posteo sends carefully — if you disagree with a change, you can terminate immediately and receive a refund of remaining credit.
You must prove innocence if your account is misused by others.
“5.2 Customers are also responsible for third parties who use the services within their account (whether authorised or unauthorised). This does not apply when the unauthorised access had nothing to do with the customer. The obligation is on the customers to prove they had nothing to do with the usage. 6.2 Customers are liable to Posteo for damages resulting from a breach of their responsibilities under 6.1 and absolve Posteo from claims of any third parties in this regard. This does not apply when the unauthorised access had nothing to do with the customer. The obligation is on the customers to prove they had nothing to do with the usage.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: If someone else misuses your account — even without your knowledge — you are presumed responsible and must prove your innocence. This reverses the normal burden of proof and could expose you to liability for actions you did not take.
What you can do: Use a strong, unique password and enable two-factor authentication (app passwords) to minimise the risk of unauthorised access and protect yourself from this clause.
You may owe fees from unauthorised account use unless you prove otherwise.
“4.4 The customers are required to pay any fees that they incur as well as those arising from unauthorised use of their account by a third party, except where the use is not in the responsibility of the customer. The obligation to disprove culpability lies with the customer.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: If a third party gains access to your account and incurs fees, you are liable for those fees unless you can prove it was not your fault. Combined with the reversed burden of proof, this means you could face unexpected charges and must actively demonstrate you were not responsible.
What you can do: Secure your account with a strong password and app-specific passwords; report any suspected unauthorised access to Posteo immediately to establish a record.
All disputes are governed by German law, regardless of where you live.
“The complete legal relationship between Posteo and its customers is exclusively governed by the law of the Federal Republic of Germany. Appealing to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (UN CISG) is barred.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: All disputes are governed by German law. If you are outside Germany and have a legal dispute with Posteo, you would need to engage with the German legal system. For most users this is a minor inconvenience, but it could be a real barrier for international customers with serious complaints.
What you can do: Be aware that German law applies. Note that Germany has strong consumer protection laws (including GDPR), which generally benefits users.
No uptime guarantee; liability is capped at German statutory minimums.
“Posteo does not guarantee that all services listed under item 3 will always be available and error-free. This applies, in particular, insofar as access to these services can involve disruptions that lie outside Posteo's control. Posteo will troubleshoot and remove any disruptions to the services named in item 3 in regard to technical and operational matters without delay. Liability applies as per the German law on product liability (Produkthaftungsgesetz).”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Posteo limits its liability to what is required under German product liability law and makes no guarantee of uptime or error-free service. For a paid email service, this means you have limited recourse if the service is unavailable. However, German law does provide a baseline of consumer protection.
What you can do: Keep local backups of important emails and do not rely solely on Posteo for critical communications without a contingency plan.
Posteo collects zero personal details — no name, no address.
“No inventory data As a matter of principle, we do not collect and save any inventory data (such as names, addresses, etc.) from you. When registering, you do not enter any inventory data and we do not collect any other personally related data. We effectively prevent data theft with this concept of data economy. The only data sets that cannot be stolen with 100 percent certainty are those that do not exist within a company. Futhermore, payment data is not connected to your account at Posteo. Because of this, in total, no inventory data exists for your account at Posteo.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Posteo collects no names, addresses, or other identifying information when you sign up. Because they never collect this data, it cannot be stolen, subpoenaed, or misused. This is a structural privacy protection that goes well beyond what most email providers offer.
What you can do: Take advantage of this by signing up without providing real personal details — the service is designed to work without them.
Your IP address is never logged, anywhere on the service.
“Traffic data: No IP addresses In conformity with the law, we strictly do not collect and save any IP addresses that could be traced back to customers. This was independently confirmed in an audit report by the German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection. We also do not collect your IP address if you visit our website or if you use our contact form or webmailer. We also do not collect or save your IP address if you use an external client to retrieve your emails via IMAP or POP3 or to transmit messages via SMTP to be delivered by us.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Your IP address is never logged — not when you visit the website, use the webmailer, or connect via an email client. This means your physical location and internet connection cannot be traced through Posteo's records. This protection was independently verified by Germany's Federal Data Protection Commissioner.
What you can do: You can use Posteo with confidence that your IP address is not being stored, even without a VPN — though a VPN still protects you at the network level.
Payment details are never linked to your email account.
“Payment data is not connected with email accounts When paying via bank transfer or PayPal, your name or the name of the paying person as well as an IBAN (with bank transfers) is transmitted to us. We do not receive any data about paying customers from credit card companies. At Posteo, payment data is strictly not connected with email accounts meaning that transferred payment details do not not exist within an account. We have used our own privacy-friendly payment system already since our founding in 2009 that completely separates payment processes from email accounts.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Even though Posteo receives payment information (e.g. your name and IBAN on a bank transfer), their system is engineered so that this data is never linked to your email account. A payment code is used to allocate funds and then deleted, leaving no trail connecting your identity to your inbox. This was confirmed in an independent government audit.
What you can do: Pay by cash letter or use a payment method in a name not tied to you for maximum anonymity, though even standard payment methods are structurally separated from your account.
Zero ads, trackers, or third-party analytics anywhere on the service.
“No advertising, no tracking, no integration of social media or Google products Posteo is free of tracking tools and advertising. We also do not send any advertising emails to you. We work independently and do not have any advertising partners. This is the only way an internet-based service can truly be run in a privacy-oriented fashion. In addition, our website is free of social-media plug-ins like Facebook, Twitter, etc. We do not use any Google products like Google Analytics or so-called captchas from third-party providers.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: There are no ads, no tracking scripts, no Google Analytics, no social media buttons, and no advertising partners anywhere on Posteo's website or service. The service is funded entirely by user subscriptions, removing any financial incentive to harvest or sell user data.
What you can do: No action needed — this protection is built into the service by design.
You can export all your data anytime using open standards.
“Data import and export Your data belongs to you. You can export and save all of your data stored at Posteo (emails, contacts, calendars, notes) locally at any time with the help of open standards and freely available programs. It's also possible to import data to your account in the same way. These standards are IMAP, POP3, SMTP, CardDAV and CalDAV. We provide instructions on how to import and export data in our help section.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Posteo explicitly states your data belongs to you and provides full self-service export of all data types — emails, contacts, calendars, and notes — using open, standard protocols. You are never locked in and can leave at any time with all your data intact.
What you can do: Periodically export your data locally using IMAP, CardDAV, or CalDAV to maintain an independent backup.
Only login session cookies are used; no tracking cookies at all.
“No tracking cookies We do not use any tracking or analytical cookies. We only use so-called session cookies in the customer menu when logging in and in the webmailer. The data that is saved on your computer exclusively serves for logging on and is especially not used to to create user profiles or anything similar. Session cookies are deleted at the end of each session.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Posteo uses only functional session cookies required for login — these are deleted when you close your session. No tracking cookies, advertising cookies, or analytics cookies are used at any point.
What you can do: No action needed; the cookie use is minimal and session-only by design.
Posteo has no user data to give authorities, even if asked.
“Requests by government agencies/Transparency reports Can I use Posteo with my own domains? No. We are an email provider with a particular, privacy-oriented model – and this is not compatible with incorporating own domains. One of our emphases is data economy: we do not collect any user information (names, addresses, etc) of our customers. We always answer requests from authorities for user information in the negative.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Because Posteo holds no inventory data (names, addresses) linked to accounts, when government agencies request user information, Posteo answers in the negative — there is simply nothing to hand over. The privacy policy also references transparency reports, indicating Posteo publicly discloses government requests it receives.
What you can do: Review Posteo's published transparency reports to see the volume and nature of government requests they receive.
Your data is deleted 90 days after Posteo terminates your account.
“9.3 If Posteo terminates the contract the customer's saved data will be deleted 90 days after the termination.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: If Posteo terminates your account (e.g. for non-payment or policy violations), your data is deleted 90 days later. This gives you a window to retrieve your data, but only if you act within that period. There is no mention of a notification being sent to remind you to export before deletion.
What you can do: Regularly export your data as a precaution, and if you receive a termination notice from Posteo, immediately export all emails, contacts, and calendars within the 90-day window.
You can encrypt all stored data so even Posteo cannot read it.
“Additionally, we offer the possibility to encrypt all emails, notes, contacts and calendar entries that are saved at Posteo individually with the password of the account (AES-encryption). You can do this in the settings of your mailbox at the touch of a button. Users of end-to-end encryption can add an additional level of encryption by applying inbound encryption to all incoming emails.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Posteo offers optional AES encryption of all stored content (emails, contacts, calendars, notes) using your account password, meaning Posteo itself cannot read your data at rest. Users can also enable inbound encryption so that all incoming emails are automatically encrypted end-to-end upon arrival.
What you can do: Enable AES mailbox encryption in your account settings and consider setting up inbound encryption for maximum protection of stored content.
Support emails are automatically deleted 14 days after case closure.
“All email correspondence will automatically be completely deleted at Posteo 14 days after a case has been closed.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Support emails you send to Posteo are automatically and permanently deleted 14 days after your support case is closed. This means Posteo does not build up a historical record of your support interactions, protecting your privacy even in customer service contexts.
What you can do: Keep your own copy of important support correspondence before the 14-day deletion window closes.
Deleted content stays in backups for up to 7 more days.
“We save all content data daily in a security backup and keep this data for an additional 7 days. When you delete content data, it's deleted immediately. If the data has been backed up in one of our daily security backups, it will remain there for an additional 7 days until it is completely deleted.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: When you delete an email or other content, it is removed from your account immediately. However, it persists in Posteo's daily backup for up to 7 more days before being fully purged. This is a short and clearly disclosed retention window, which is reasonable and user-protective.
What you can do: If you need data gone urgently (e.g. for legal reasons), be aware it may remain in backups for up to 7 days after deletion.
Frequently asked questions
Is Posteo's Terms & Conditions agreement fair?
- BeforeYouClick grades Posteo A on an A–E scale, where A is the fairest. Its agreement contains 0 critical clauses, 6 warnings and 11 good practices.
How long does it take to read Posteo's terms?
- Posteo's agreement takes about 42 minutes to read in full, across 17 clauses we reviewed. The summary on this page covers the same ground in under a minute.
When was Posteo's agreement last analyzed?
- We last read Posteo's Terms & Conditions on July 4, 2026. Companies change their terms without notice, so check the original document for the current version.
Is this analysis legal advice?
- No. This analysis is AI-generated, can be incomplete or wrong, and is not legal advice. Use it as a starting point and read the original agreement before you agree to it.
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