What is the difference between e-mail and a digital postbox?

Why ordinary e-mails are not enough

A useful way to think about e-mail is to picture a postcard. Once you drop it in the letterbox, it travels a route you do not control, passing through many hands and locations before it reaches the recipient.

The same is true for e-mail. A single message can pass through several servers and providers. Copies may live on laptops, phones, back-ups and cloud systems across different countries. Even if the content is not obviously exposed, it is very hard to know where it really is or who might have access to it.

For low-risk content that does not matter much. For payslips, insurance policies, bank information, health documents, identity data or legal correspondence, it matters a great deal.

From a data protection perspective, unprotected e-mail traffic can quickly become a liability. It makes it harder to comply with regulations such as the GDPR and harder to demonstrate that you have taken appropriate steps to protect the people you communicate with.

 

Typical risks associated with e-mail

Most people recognise the obvious threats: phishing, spam and malware. There are, however, a range of quieter risks that are easy to overlook in everyday work:

Limited control over the route

Once sent, an e-mail can be relayed through several servers and jurisdictions that you do not control.

Weak identity assurance

It is relatively simple to spoof an e-mail address or set up a domain that looks almost identical to a trusted sender.

Misdelivery and human error

A single mistyped address or reply-all can expose documents to people who were never meant to receive them.

Forwarding and local storage

Sensitive content can be forwarded or saved in personal inboxes and devices far beyond your normal security perimeter.

Poor traceability

It is often difficult to prove that a specific message was received and read by the intended person at a specific time.

Technical measures can make e-mail safer, but they do not change the fundamentals. E-mail is an open, distributed system, not a secure, governed communication platform.

 

What is a Digital Postbox

A Digital Postbox is a secure digital mailbox designed specifically for important, long-lived communication between organisations and end-users. Instead of sending documents into the open e-mail ecosystem, you deliver them into a protected environment that works more like a digital version of a locked letterbox.

A modern Digital Postbox platform typically offers:

• Access only for verified senders and recipients

• Strong authentication for users, for example through national digital IDs

• Encryption of documents in transit and at rest

• Detailed logs of delivery and access for auditing

• A clean user experience where important messages are kept separate from advertising and spam

In many countries, the Digital Postbox has become a piece of national digital infrastructure. Authorities, banks, insurers and utilities use it as a standard channel for serious messages, because it gives them and their customers a much higher level of control and security than ordinary e-mail.

 

E-mail vs Digital Postbox at a glance

Here is a simple side-by-side comparison of e-mail and a Digital Postbox for high-value communication:

 

When to use e-mail – and when to use a Digital Postbox

E-mail is not going away. It remains a practical tool for everyday messages, scheduling, low-risk notifications and informal exchanges. For much of that traffic, the security demands are relatively modest.

A Digital Postbox becomes essential when any of the following apply:

• You are sending documents that contain personal, financial, health or other sensitive data

• You need a reliable audit trail for legal, contractual or regulatory reasons

• The documents must be stored safely for many years and still be easy to retrieve

• You want to protect recipients from phishing and impersonation attempts

• You need a single, controlled channel that different departments and systems can rely on

High-risk documents and official messages are routed through a Digital Postbox backed by clear internal policies, technical integration and user training.

 

How a Digital Postbox supports compliance and trust

From a compliance point of view, a Digital Postbox makes it much easier to show that you have taken appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data.

Because documents are encrypted, access-controlled and logged, you can:

• Demonstrate exactly what was sent and when

• See who accessed a document and at what time

• Apply retention rules that match legal requirements

• Reduce the number of uncontrolled copies on personal devices and mail servers

This aligns well with regulatory expectations for secure digital communication and with modern data protection principles such as privacy by design and privacy by default. It also supports a broader strategy around digital trust, where you give users confidence that sensitive communication is handled with care.

 

How e-Boks helps close the gap

e-Boks provides a mature Digital Postbox platform used by millions of citizens and thousands of organisations across several markets. The solution is built around edge-to-edge encryption, strong authentication and a privacy-by-design architecture that supports strict data protection requirements.

For organisations, this means:

• A secure delivery layer that can be integrated into existing customer communication systems

• A way to move away from risky e-mail workflows for sensitive documents

• A standardised channel for authorities, banks, insurers, utilities and other senders

• A better experience for end-users, who can find their important documents in one trusted place

 

Ready to move your sensitive communication beyond e-mail?

If you are still sending payslips, contracts, policy documents or customer data by e-mail, you are carrying more risk than you need to. A Digital Postbox gives you a secure, structured way to deliver what matters most.

If you would like to explore what that could look like for your organisation, contact e-Boks.

 

FAQ: E-mail vs Digital Postbox

Is e-mail ever secure enough for sensitive documents?

E-mail can be made safer with encryption and good internal policies, but it still travels through an open ecosystem you do not control. Copies of your messages can end up on multiple servers, devices and back-ups. For truly sensitive content, or where you need a clear audit trail, a Digital Postbox is a much stronger option because it keeps delivery and access inside a governed, secure platform.

What kind of information should always go through a Digital Postbox instead of e-mail?

As a rule of thumb, anything you would hesitate to send on a physical postcard should not go by ordinary e-mail either. Typical candidates for a Digital Postbox include:

• Documents with personal or financial data

• Health information and other special categories of personal data

• Contracts, terms and legal notices that may need to be referenced later

• Regulatory or compliance-related communication

• High-value customer communication where trust is critical

These are the flows where encryption, access control and reliable delivery make the biggest difference.

Does a Digital Postbox replace e-mail completely?

No. E-mail still has a role to play for everyday coordination, informal messages and low-risk updates. A Digital Postbox is designed for the opposite end of the spectrum – the serious, long-lived documents where you need security, traceability and a better user experience.

How does a Digital Postbox help with GDPR and other data protection rules?

A Digital Postbox supports data protection in several ways:

• It reduces the number of uncontrolled copies of sensitive documents in personal inboxes and devices

• It provides encryption and strong access control by default

• It gives you logs of who accessed which document and when

• It makes it easier to apply retention rules and delete data when it is no longer needed

This makes it simpler to demonstrate that you have taken appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data, which is a central expectation in regulations such as the GDPR.

Will our customers or citizens need new logins or an app to use a Digital Postbox?

That depends on how the solution is implemented in your country, but in most cases the experience is familiar. Users log in with credentials they already know from other public or banking services. They can typically access their Digital Postbox through a web browser and, in many markets, through a dedicated mobile app as well.

The important part is that they only need to learn one trusted place to look for serious messages instead of trying to keep track of many different senders and channels.