On Wednesday 1 March 2023 in the morning we accessed our Tutanota email account with no problem. That afternoon WITHOUT WARNING our email service was blocked. We could still login but could read only the email headings in various folders. All text was missing. I contacted Tutanota Support from our secondary email service and the reply indicated that we were blocked by Tutanota because Tutanota/Tutao had decided to allow access for only the CURRENT versions of various browsers, supposedly for security.
We have an iMac 7.1 that runs on OSX 10.11.6 El Capitan, using Firefox 78.15.0esr. Both the Mac OS and the browser are the latest versions for our iMac. This Intel iMac cannot be updated to later versions of MacOS or Firefox that run on the very latest hardware. This combination works fine for ProtonMail, Gmail, Yahoomail, YouTube, Skype, etc.
So on 1 March 2023 some arrogant nerd at Tutanota/Tutao decided WITHOUT WARNING to cut off all Tutanota users except those who have the very latest hardware and software. We are unable to force Apple and Mozilla/Firefox to provide upgrades just for one arrogant and irresponsible email service that has decided its users must have the latest software and hardware. We should not have to anyway. It is up to users to decide what level of risk they accept by using older products and software of any type.
It gets worse. We could still login and see the headings of all emails in various folders but the text was missing. I had mentioned this to Tutanota Support and the response two weeks later on 15 March 2023 was that we found we had now been denied the ability to login to Tutanota. Presumably this was done as an act of spite for submitting a complaint!
As old age pensioners with limited pension incomes we cannot afford to regularly buy the latest electronic toys to meet the onerous requirements of anti-environment and anti-consumer companies like Tutanota/Tutao. We have to pay retail prices from our limited pensions for electronic products whereas employees of a tech company like Tutanota probably receive the latest hardware and software either free or at substantial discounts that are not available to the general public, especially pensioners, and even if paid for come out of a substantial tech company salary or corporate expense account.
Further, in these environmentally sensitive times when we all are encouraged to "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle", Tutanota should be encouraging the public to continue to use older products rather than imposing WITHOUT WARNING a premature Throw Away need upon users of older but still perfectly functional products. We are appalled at the outdated and irresponsible Premature Planned Obsolescence policy of Tutanota.
The EU is reigning in anti-environment and anti-consumer Big Tech, imposing substantial fines on Google and Microsoft, forcing intransigent companies to make appliances easily repairable in an effort to keep older equipment in service and reduce anti-environmental waste, and enforcing the use of a common connection from chargers to different appliances to reduce the number of chargers needed to perform the same function. It is therefore particularly galling to see anti-environment companies like Tutanota/Tutao attempt to sabotage this responsible EU policy by coercing the public to unnecessarily purchase the latest hardware and software to replace perfectly usable equipment.
We now cannot access our email. Apart from normal communications we are in the midst of a health issue and are blocked from email communications with hospitals, doctors and consultants. Did these dunces at Tutanota not think of the inconvenience and damage caused to users by WITHOUT WARNING cutting off their email service? Any decent person would have given at least 30 days notice of such an event to give users time to recover emails from online folders, change to another email service and notify their contacts.
We want an immediate restoration of our Tutanota email service. They just have to provide the same as they were doing up until 1 March 2023. Please help blocked users by pressuring Tutanota at
[email protected] and
[email protected] to provide this. Note that security is not an issue as ProtonMail and others are still usable and presumably secure on our iMac!
Is this one more area in which the EU will have to impose regulations to enforce responsible business practices? It is already well known for taking on Big Tech. We request you to ask the EU to expand its areas of regulation and enforcement to cover ISPs such as Tutanota who bully the public with anti-environment and anti-consumer practices.
[email protected]
Up until this year we have recommended Tutanota. Now we can no longer recommend it. Indeed, an email service that cuts off its customers/users WITHOUT WARNING for a spurious reason is one to avoid and warn others about.
We will appreciate any help you are able to provide to help blocked users regain access to Tutanota emails.