Skiff was acquired by Notion (and will no longer exist)

This is a text automatically translated from Italian. If you appreciate our work and if you like reading it in your language, consider a donation to allow us to continue doing it and improving it.

We're writing this news quickly since it all happened over the weekend. Skiff, for those who have never heard of it, is (was?) a very interesting suite of encrypted mail/calendar and documents based in the United States. The news is that Skiff has been acquired by Notion ¹ and so far nothing too new or sensational. The most important fact is that with the acquisition Skiff will cease to exist because it will slowly be merged with Notion's services and the entire Skiff suite will no longer exist.

Born a few years ago, it has started a quite incredible journey in providing an end-to-end encrypted service with some applications Open source and with constant and excellent updates ² which bore hope for the future.

Skiff was acquired by Notion (and will no longer exist)

We too, after some time and several tests, had decided to include some of their services among the alternatives because they had been online for quite some time, they seemed quite reliable as regards updates and maintenance and the service offered was decidedly good. .

Also one of the most popular blogs on privacy, that is Privacy Guides, had decided to include it among the recommendations despite the many doubts (especially ethical, not so much on a technical level) raised by some people. For example, there was a long discussion last year on their forum with the Skiff CEO also present who ultimately convinced the staff of Privacy Guides to the addition ³. Today, after the sunburn, those at Privacy Guides are thinking about how to avoid "the next Skiff" ⁴, and this is a reflection that interests us too and that we tend to share. Projects (like Skiff) financed by the so-called venture capitalist they are certainly those most "at risk".

A personal domain is forever

So what will happen now is that Skiff services will be implemented within Notion but the Skiff suite, including Skiff Mail, will no longer exist. This also reminds us the importance of having your own personal domain when it comes to email. Having an important address associated with a domain that you do not own (therefore also applies to all Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo etc. email accounts) ties you to a company more than is necessary.

This tag @loyal alternatives is used to automatically send this post to Feddit and allow anyone on the fediverse to comment on it.

1. Notion acquires privacy-focused productivity platform Skiff[↩]
2. Skiff changelog[↩]
3. Skiff Mail (Email Provider)[↩]
4. Avoiding the next Skiff[↩]

Join communities