Norwegian privacy, guaranteed
Keep your emails private, secure, and safe from surveillance
Unmatched Norwegian privacy protection
Norwegian privacy regulations and EU’s General Data Protection Regulation shield your communications from surveillance and unauthorized access.
Runbox never scans your email for ads or sells your data to third parties. You remain in full control over your own information.
Your privacy is not just a commitment — it’s a legal obligation.
– Man Parrish, New York, USA
Private. Secure. No compromises.
No advertising
Runbox is a premium, ad-free email service. Unlike free services where your data is the product, we never display ads or sell your information, keeping your inbox clean and private.
Minimal logging
Runbox minimizes data retention, keeping server logs only to help resolve any issues and to comply with laws and regulations. This ensures that your usage isn’t tracked or stored for long.
No data mining
Your emails are never scanned for advertising, tracking, or third-party sharing. Our commitment to privacy means your personal and professional messages stay confidential.
No scanning
Your emails are only scanned for essential virus and spam protection, never scanned to serve ads or for data mining, ensuring your communications stay private and secure.
No 3rd parties
No unauthorized third party including advertisers, analytics companies, or external services can ever access your data. Your data is yours, secured by Runbox’s privacy policy.
No sharing
We never share your data with third parties unauthorized, and we only disclose data to authorities if required by a Norwegian court order or upon a breach of our Terms of Service or Norwegian law.
The Norwegian privacy advantage
Norway, a pioneer in privacy and security
Your email account contains your most sensitive information — but not all providers protect it equally. In the U.S., laws like the CLOUD Act let government agencies access your emails with minimal oversight, often without your knowledge.
Norway has been a privacy pioneer for decades, and both local and foreign authorities must meet a high legal threshold before they can access your data — a threshold backed by Norwegian criminal law, not just company policy.
Built for security
The Runbox email servers are housed in a maximum security facility provided by StackInfra in Oslo, Norway — originally built as a computing and communications hub for the Norwegian Government in the early 1980s. With robust infrastructure, advanced security,
The facility and its infrastructure are monitored around the clock by our own team of system administrators, with IP-based access control and continuous security patching — so the servers stay both physically and operationally secure, every hour of every day.
Transparency you can trust
We are transparent about how we collect, use, and store your personal data. Our privacy policy outlines this clearly so you can understand exactly what information we collect and why, and how it’s protected.
You have the right to request access to the data we hold to provide you with our service. You’ll always know what data we collect. We believe your trust is earned through clarity and accountability.
We have an appointed Data Protection Officer to oversee GDPR compliance. We ensure that your personal data is always handled responsibly and that your information is not misused or exposed.
Automatic protection against threats
Stay secure with Runbox
Runbox protects your email account from viruses, trackers , spam, harmful attachments, and malicious scripts, while you can organize your email flow with advanced account and email management capabilities.
Fast and ad-free
Runbox is entirely free from intrusive ads, giving you a clean and uncluttered environment that allows for efficient email management.
Virus scanning
Runbox powerful virus filter detects and blocks potentially harmful attachments or links in emails, safeguarding your device from malware and other security threats.
Spam filtering
Email sorting
Manual email filters allow users to customize their inbox by filtering incoming mail to different folders, forward to other addresses, or block certain emails by an unlimited set of custom criteria.
Added security
Double the Protection
With Two-Factor Authentication, your account is shielded by more than just a password. After entering your credentials, you’ll need a second, time-sensitive code—ensuring only you can access your account. It’s security made simple with an additional layer of security.
Extra Security Quickly
Protect your account with 6-digit codes that refresh every 30 seconds. Simply use a free authenticator app to generate unique codes—adding an extra layer of security to your login. Just enter your username, password and the Timed One-Time Password code for secure access.
Secure Access for Apps
Use app passwords to connect your email to programs like Outlook, Apple Mail, or Thunderbird — without compromising security. App passwords give you control over device access, ensuring your main account password stays safe and is not shared with third-party apps.
Trusted Browsers
By enabling the Trusted Browser option, your browser is securely recognized—allowing you to log in with just your username and password. Enjoy convenience while keeping your account protected, and rest easy knowing trusted devices are still guarded by your initial 2FA setup.
Take control of your online identities
Runbox Identity Management
With Runbox Identity Management, you’re in charge of how you communicate. Use 100 free email aliases to protect your main address and keep your inbox organized.
Plus addressing lets you track and manage emails effortlessly — unlimited temporary addresses help you stay clutter-free.
Consolidate all your email accounts in one place for seamless management, and choose from a variety of Runbox domain names to create a professional, personalized, or location-based email address that’s uniquely yours.
One place to manage identities
With Runbox’ user-friendly web app you can easily manage your identities, aliases, and other profile configurations from one place. Your identity, your rules.
Straightforward policies
At Runbox, we’ve made a conscious effort to ensure that our Privacy Policy is clear, concise, and easy to understand. We are clear about what data we collect and how we use it.
Our Terms of Service is designed to be transparent and user-friendly, because you deserve to know exactly what to expect from our service.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Runbox really ad-free?
Yes. Runbox is funded entirely by subscriptions, not advertising — so unlike free email providers, we have no business reason to sell or share your data, and we don’t. We don’t use your email content or usage data for advertising, data mining, or analytics of any kind.
Does Runbox scan my emails?
Runbox only scans emails for virus and spam protection — nothing else. We never scan your messages for advertising, data mining, or third-party sharing. Your personal and professional communications stay completely private and confidential.
Does Runbox use tracking or analytics?
No. Runbox does not use Google Analytics or any other third-party tracking tools. We never monitor or share your usage data with outside parties. The only data we collect is what’s strictly necessary to provide you with our service.
What encryption does Runbox support?
Runbox encrypts your email in transit between your device and our servers, and between Runbox and other providers wherever possible. However, if you want complete end-to-end privacy — where only you and your recipient can read the message — you can add an extra layer of protection using S/MIME or PGP encryption. This gives you full control over who can access your communications. Learn more about email encryption with Runbox.
Is Runbox open source?
Partially. The Runbox 7 web app is open source and available on GitHub — anyone can inspect the code and contribute to its development. While not all Runbox components are open source, making the web app code publicly available allows technically minded users to verify how it works and hold us accountable to our privacy commitments. You can view the code at github.com/runbox.
What is the benefit of storing data in Norway
Storing your data in Norway means it’s protected by some of the world’s strongest privacy laws, including GDPR and the Norwegian Personal Data Act. Unlike US-based providers — where authorities can access emails with just a subpoena, and the CLOUD Act can compel data handovers globally — Norwegian law requires a court order before any data is disclosed, even to foreign governments. For full details, visit Runbox’s Norwegian Privacy page.
How does Runbox comply with GDPR?
We only collect data that’s necessary to provide the service (data minimization), we’re transparent about what we collect and why, and we process your data based on clear legal grounds — primarily, what is necessary to deliver the email service you’ve signed up for.
In practice, this means:
- You have real rights over your data. You can request access to the data we hold about you, ask us to correct inaccuracies, or request full deletion at any time — not just when you close your account.
- No behavioral profiling or automated decision-making. We don’t build advertising profiles from your data or use it to make automated decisions that affect you, which GDPR specifically restricts.
- Norway implements GDPR directly. As an EEA member, Norway adopted GDPR through its Personal Data Act, giving you the same statutory protections as anyone in the EU — with Norwegian law providing the enforcement mechanism.
- We’re accountable, not just compliant on paper. Our Data Protection Officer oversees GDPR compliance and is available to answer questions about how your data is handled.
If you’d like more detail on your specific rights as a data subject, or want to make a request regarding your data, see our Privacy Policy or contact our Data Protection Officer dataprotectionofficer@runbox.com directly.
Email privacy in Norway vs. the US
Norwegian law gives email the same constitutional protection as personal correspondence, requiring a court order before any surveillance or data access can occur. In the US, emails lose their protected status after just 6 months, allowing authorities to obtain them with a simple subpoena — no warrant needed. On top of that, the CLOUD Act means US-based providers can be forced to hand over your data no matter where it’s stored in the world. Read more on our Norwegian Privacy page.
What happens to government data request?
By principle, we will not disclose user data without a valid Norwegian court order. Any foreign government request must first navigate Norway’s diplomatic and judicial processes — typically submitted through Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and routed through the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice — before it can even reach the point of being considered, let alone granted.
This protection goes beyond disclosure. Norway’s Penal Code (Chapter 21, §201–§211) makes it a criminal offense to access information systems or data without authorization, independent of anything Runbox itself promises. It extends to surveillance as well: Norwegian authorities cannot monitor or intercept traffic without a valid court order, enforced by an independent oversight body, the Control Committee for Wiretapping.
Where legally permitted, we will notify you if a request for your data is made.
Read more about Norwegian Privacy.
What happens to my data if I cancel my account?
When you close your account, your data is permanently deleted from our active servers within 6 months (as required by Norwegian bookkeeping law for paid accounts, or 1 month for trials). You can request immediate deletion of all data, including backups, by contacting Support.
Read more: Privacy Policy