Secure email clients are fast becoming the gold of the internet amid news of government snooping. Former MIT scientists, consulting with CERN scientists, have teamed up to create an encrypted email client called ProtonMail.

ProtonMail is so secure that if you lose your password even its creators can't help you, as only you have access to the account. And should any government try to circumvent access they'll have to go through the toughest private security laws in the world as the servers are all in Switzerland.

The messages are all stored on ProtonMail's servers in an encrypted format. Unlike other encrypted email services this will also send and receive data in encrypted format. This means any would be hacker won't even be able to access the data on its way in and out of the servers. Not that they'd be able to find your emails as the whole service is completely anonymous with no user data logged at all.

Users can even set a time limit on the message so it will self-destruct once that limit has been reached. Yes like Snapchat and, more spy-like, Mission Impossible.

But what if I send an email to somewhere unsecure like Gmail or Hotmail? Fret not you can even send to non ProtonMail clients with encryption still in place. You simply need to share a pass phrase with the other user who then receives an email link to where they can access your message. Of course you can also send non-encrypted emails directly to other services if you choose to.

Other levels of security include SSL secured connections, server side integrity checks, hardware level security and OpenPGP encryption. Despite all that deeply nerd-level stuff it's somehow also really user friendly and simple to use.

Want to step off the grid and stop being tracked by anyone with an Idiot's Guide to Hacking? Get involved with the ProtonMail beta now.

READ: How to see who’s tracking you online and stop them easily, why give away your data for free?