FAQs and Help for PrivacyHarbor

Frequently Asked Questions

New Registration

Q: What are the recommended system requirements?: A: There are no absolute minimum requirements, however, we have developed a list of system recommendations that are known to work, with no extra set-up. A well-tuned, functional computer greatly improves the user experience of the Internet. While the absolute minimum system requirements for using PrivacyHarbor™ depend on your particular system configuration, PrivacyHarbor™ will usually perform better on systems that are upgraded to the recommended hardware requirements.
Best Software for Most Users: Windows XP or Vista; Internet Explorer (latest version); Firefox (latest version); avast!, AVG, or Antivir anti-virus software; Windows Defender; Windows Firewall
Other Browsers*: Safari for Mac or Windows(latest version); Firefox for Mac and Linux (latest version); Opera (latest version); *All software on this list is not regularly tested with PrivacyHarbor. We support all PrivacyHarbor users; however, if we are unable to solve your compatibility issue, we will will refer you to our list of "best software."
Recommended Hardware*: Processor: 1 GHz, or faster; RAM: 768 MB, or more; Video Card: Modern 2D graphics processor; Internet: High-speed; *Hardware recommendations are for optimal performance. Slower computers can use PrivacyHarbor with careful system maintenance.

Q: Can I send messages to people that use email?

A: Yes! PrivacyHarbor™ is fully compatible with email. When you send a secure message to an email user, they receive a notification of your waiting private message at their regular email address. Additionally, you may send a message as a regular, unsecure email that will appear exactly the same as any other email. More info on Send Messages as Email

Q: Are my payment transactions secure?

A: Yes. PrivacyHarbor is verified by the largest 3rd party SSL certificate provider to secure all credit card transactions and transfers of personal information. This includes our registration and payment pages, as well as all pages within our secure web application.

Q: Does this site have a BBB membership?

A: Yes. View our Better Business Bureau listing.

Q: Who do I contact about unresolved issues?

A: Contact our Support Center. Live support is available 7am-6pm M-F; 10am-4pm on weekends (PST).

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Unregistered Users

Q: What is PrivacyHarbor™?: A: PrivacyHarbor™ is a web application that provides Private Communication Networks to individuals and corporations. The application also has powerful organization and project management features. Please visit our business services , personal services, or read about our company.
Q: What is this notification I've received?: A: You've received a notification that you have a private message waiting for you on the PrivacyHarbor™ system. This private message was sent by the person identified in the notification through their PrivacyHarbor™ Private Communication Network. This person wants to communicate with you privately and not by traditional, non-secure email.
Q: What is my security code?: A: The security code is the string of letters and numbers displayed as a picture in a frame. PrivacyHarbor™ uses graphical security codes to ensure that people, and not computers, are reading a message. The link you clicked on to access your message can also be followed by computer programs known as web crawlers. Search engines use web crawlers to search the Internet for information, though this is usually harmless. However, when web crawlers access private information by following a link, anyone using that search engine can view it's contents. The graphical security code keeps this from happening because web crawlers pass over the graphic as if it were only a picture, but users can see the text.
Q: How do I unsubscribe from you're mailing list?: A: The notification you have received is not an advertisement and you are not on a list; someone that knows you wishes you to read a private message on the PrivacyHarbor™ system. If you would like to stop receiving messages from this person, please use there email address (found in the notification) to let them know your communication preferences.
Q: I lost my e-mail notification; can I still retrieve my private message?: A: Yes. You may retrieve all past private messages by creating an account with PrivacyHarbor™. Basic Individual subscriptions are free.
Q: Can I send private messages as an unregistered user?: A: Yes. As an unregistered user you may reply to anyone that sends you a private message by simply clicking "reply" when that message is open. If you would like to send private messages to others, please register for a free Basic Individual subscription.
Q: Who do I contact about unresolved issues?: A: Contact our Support Center. Live support is available 7am-6pm M-F; 10am-4pm on weekends (PST).

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Registered Users

Q: Should I turn off my Pop-up blocker to use PrivacyHarbor™?: A: PrivacyHarbor™ requires the use of pop-ups. When you first use PrivacyHarbor™, you may see a yellow bar at the top of your browser telling you that pop-ups are blocked. Choose "always allow pop-ups from www.PrivacyHarbor.com." To allow pop-ups in the future, add www.PrivacyHarbor.com to your browsers list of websites to allow.; In Internet Explorer ©, go to Tools> Pop-up Blocker> Pop-up Blocker Settings. Enter www.PrivacyHarbor.com and click "add." You should also visit Microsoft© for more information about their pop-up blocker software.; In Firefox ©, go to Tools> Options> Contents. Find the "Block pop-up windows" check box and click the "Exceptions" button. Enter www.PrivacyHarbor.com and click "Allow." You should also visit Mozilla Firefox© for more information about their pop-up blocker software.; If you use another third party pop-up blocking other than Firefox or Explorer, please consult that software's help files to find out how to allow pop-ups for PrivacyHarbor™.
Q: How do I cancel my account?: A: We're sorry to see you go. To cancel, please log in to your PrivacyHarbor™ account and send us a message stating that you wish to cancel.
Q: Will I get a refund? What amount?: A: All subscriptions are fully refundable for 30 days*—no questions asked. Subscriptions for a year or more have the additional benefit of a prorated refund proportional to the unused amount of your subscription. For instance, if you have a one-year subscription and cancel on the 60th day, you would still receive back the money you paid for 10 months of service, or 5/6ths of your money.
In order for your refund to be credited correctly, you my request cancellation by phone or by secure message from your account to support@privacyharbor.com. Phone calls must be received before 5pm on the 30th day, and secure messages by midnight.

Review our Money-Back Guarantee in our Terms of Service.

*The 30-day period includes the day of sign-up.

Q: What is "Send as Email? Why is it unsecure?: A: The "send as email" feature sends the message just like email from any regular email account, but exposes that message to all the risks inherent in email. Regular email is—by it's very nature—not secure; PrivacyHarbor™ offers an alternative: Private Communication Networks (PCN). PCN's are not the same as email. PCN's send a notice by email of a waiting private message. That email user can then access your PCN online to view the private message. However, some users desire the ability to send a traditional unsecure email in instances where the recipient is unable or unwilling to access a private message. These messages are send "in the open" and can have information harvested in the same way as any other email. Learn more about how email works and how keyword harvesting affects business.
Q: Why can I only send 60 messages per month to Non-PrivacyHarbor users?: A: Because Basic Accounts are totally private, AND totally free (without ads or marketing partners), there are certain restrictions. However, if your contact both receives a private message and creates a password, they become "in-network" and can send them unlimited messages. With "out-of-network" contacts—that is, any contact that does not yet have a PrivacyHarbor password—you are limited to sending 60 messages per month. This does not carry over from month-to-month, and will reset to 60 at the begriming of every calendar month.
Q: Who do I contact about unresolved issues?: A: Contact our Support Center. Live support is available 7am-6pm M-F; 10am-4pm on weekends (PST).

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Account Features

About Email Accounts

PrivacyHarbor Email Accounts are similar to other web-mail services: your inbox is not located on your hard-drive, but on our servers. The difference is that PrivacyHarbor is totally secure, and lets you send private messages to other email users without special software or "encryption keys." You can check your PrivacyHarbor inbox by logging in, or install our convenient "notifier" to let you know as soon as a private message arrives.

Secure, Encrypted Messages

Secure Messaging sets PrivacyHarbor apart from regular webmail accounts and require no software or "encryptions keys". They can be sent to anyone that uses email, so you can carry on a conversation in total privacy. Secure Messages work by first encrypting and saving your sent message to our severs. The recipient of your message receives an invitation by regular email to view the private message and, with one click, they are taken to an SSL encrypted web-page to view the message. While the invitation must pass through multiple unknown email servers to get to its destination, the actual content of your message never leaves the safety of our secure, remote servers.

In-Network and Out-of-Network Messages

(Applies only to free Basic Accounts)

An "in-network" message is any message that goes to another PrivacyHarbor member. They may also have a free account. You may send as many in-network messages as you like, and are limited only by memory space available to your account. Out-of-network means anyone that has not yet created an account with PrivacyHarbor (as simple as creating a password when they receive your private message). Basic Accounts are limited to 60 out-of-network messages per month. As you use your 60 messages up, a bar above your inbox will show your available message credits decreasing.

Message Status

Similar to a return receipt, the "message Status" feature allows you to see when—and if—your private messages are read by the recipient(s). You can view the time and date the message was opened by each recipient, or see that the message was "marked read" without actually being opened. The change to the time stamp is permanent once a message is opened.

Address Book (Contacts)

PrivacyHarbor has address books with folder and search functionality, as well as a whitelist of safe senders. Your whitelist is created by accepting a message from someone, and a whitelisted email address can easily be upgraded to a contact at any time. Your contact list can also be imported from Outlook, Outlook Express, and any other application that can export a contact list as a coma separated value, or ".csv" file.

Your address book is organized using the same folder system as your messages. For instance, if you get a message and put it in your "Friends and Family" folder, the contact who sent that message also appears in your "Friends and Family" folder, automatically. Then, when you send a new message and mark it two be placed in the "Friends and Family" folder, a list of all contacts already in that folder will appear. If you wish to choose a contact not in that folder, you can select "view all" to choose a different contact. After the message is sent, that recipient is added to your "Friends and Family" folder.

Email Attachments and Storage

Each type of account comes with a different amount of storage for sent and received messages and attachments. Basic Accounts come with 100MB, while Personal come with 1GB, and Executive with 5GB. 10 user Enterprise Accounts come with 10GB, but pool all available memory for any of the 10 users to access. For instance, many Enterprise users have less than 100MB in messages and attachments, but one or two users can use several Gigabytes for multimedia communications without a problem.

Executive and Enterprise Accounts can purchase additional memory for $1 per GB per month. This must be purchased in increments of 5GB for Executive, and 10GB for Enterprise. If you are on a yearly billing plan, the appropriate discount will be applied and the extra storage purchase pro-rated to line up on the same billing date every year. To order more storage, call us at 888-762-7932, or 360-906-8111.

Large Attachments of up to 100MB can be sent from all but Basic Accounts. This total also includes the encryption encoding and message text and formatting, so the size of your attached file must actually be slightly less than 100MB.

SnapGuard Anti-Spam and Virus Protection

SnapGuard keeps your attachments free from viruses, and more importantly, keeps junk out of your inbox. SnapGuard works by first catching obvious spam and sending it to "The Dump." All other suspicious messages and email from unknown senders is held in the SnapGuard quarantine area till you chose to:

Accept it (the sender is added to your whitelist and will always go to your inbox)
Block it (the sender is automatically sent to "The Dump" from now on)
Mark as "Spam" (the message content is analyzed and messages from the same sender, or very similar senders, go to "The Dump."
Delete it (It is sent to "The Dump.")
Place it on "Hold" (the message is set aside for you to deal with at a future time)

Once a message arrives at "The Dump", it is held for 7 days and then permanently deleted.

SnapFolders

SnapFolders are like regular folders on your computer in that you can create, delete, rename, move and nest them within one another; but SnapFolders are different in that they work to keep your conversations and contacts more organized. When you place a sent or received message in a folder, all replies and subsequent messages in the same conversation thread stay in that folder.

You can also select a message to appear in multiple "secondary" folders; however, these are not copies of the message, but rather the same message appearing in multiple places. If you modify or delete the message, it is modified in all places.

Folders can also be archived. For instance if you create a folder for a specific project and that project ends, you can quickly archive that folder, and all messages with a primary assignment to that folder are also archived (messages that have a secondary assignment to that folder are unchanged). Archived messages do not appear in your message log (inbox) and archived folders are hidden unless you choose to view them.

Shared SnapFolders

Executive and Enterprise Accounts may also "share" their SnapFolders. When you share a SnapFolder, it shows up in that person's folder tree as a shared folder. They will be able to see all messages in that folder, as well as all other contacts with whom that folder is shared. Shared SnapFolders are perfect for collaborating with team-members on a project.

Enterprise SnapFolders

Enterprise Accounts can create there own internal, system-wide file structure to stay more organized. That way, any message sent to from one user to another, within the same Enterprise Account, stays organized into the same folder upon arrival. The folder tree structure of Enterprise Folders is the same for every user of that Enterprise Account. However, unlike shared folders, Enterprise Folders do not let anyone see messages in any other users account; although an enterprise account administrator always has full control over other non-admin users. Also, users can create additional folders on there own, so they can use—but not be locked into—the Enterprise SnapFolder system.

Customer Support

Customer Support regarding registration and billing issues is available by phone or private message to all accounts. However, tech support by phone is considered a premium service and is therefore only available to Executive and Enterprise users. This is because we take time to help you use our application on your system, whether it takes 5 min or an hour. We also can remotely diagnose problems with your software and can schedule convenient appointments for tutorial sessions or support.

If you are a Basic or Personal Account member, you can send a private message by clicking "Contact Us" in the lower-right corner of the screen after you login. We will respond promptly and personally to solve your problem.

Enterprise User Management

Enterprise Account Administrators can create any number of users up to their account seat limit (10 for a starter package). Once created, you can monitor, and modify user settings and messages.

Unresolved Issues

Contact our Support Center. Live support is available 7am-6pm M-F; 10am-4pm on weekends (PST).

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Privacy Harbor™

Support

Frequently Asked Questions

New Registration

Unregistered Users

Registered Users

Account Features

New Registration

Unregistered Users

Registered Users

Account Features