ProtonMail, the free open source email service from CERN and MIT scientists, is out of beta. The tool, which allows consumers to add encryption to their emails, is now widely available without an invitation. In addition, the Swiss-based service has released new Android and iOS apps.

British pop singer Adele has had personal photos stolen and posted online after her boyfriend Simon Konecki's email was allegedly hacked into. The stolen data includes photos of Adele as a child, as well as photos of her own child. The news comes after a Pennsylvania man was just sentenced for stealing the private photos of other celebrities, including: Jennifer Lawrence, Kirsten Dunst and Gabrielle Union.

Engineers from Google, Yahoo, Comcast, Microsoft, LinkedIn and 1&1 Mail & Media Development have teamed up to make email more secure. The group has submitted a new proposal to the Internet Engineering Task Force that will protect emails in transit from hackers who impersonate the destination server or break SSL through attacks. The new approach will automatically check if the destination supports encryption and if a certificate is valid before sending an email to a domain that supports SMTP.

The malware program that generates the trending employee/CEO email spam that has been hitting companies around the globe can be purchased for $25 on the black market. Security researchers from antivirus firm Trend Micro recently revealed that the scam uses a commercial keylogger program called Olympic Vision. Hackers use the software to mimic executives of companies and send them to the accounting department in the hopes of getting the accounting person to be tricked into sending money to these spammers.

American Express has revealed that the company experienced a data breach back in December 2013. The company did not reveal too many details about the exposure, but it could have leaked customer data such as account numbers, names, email addresses and card expiration dates. AmEx revealed the news in a letter published on California attorney general's website this month revealed that the breach came through a third-party service provider.

Cloud-based accounting software Xero has expanded its integration with Google products. The company has expanded its Gmail offering in its Google Apps for Work integration. New features include more reporting tools, the ability to manage email marketing lists, and the ability to identify customer lists by location.

Uber generated an average 20 percent open rate on a campaign sent in March promoting safe rides on St. Patrick's Day, according to eDataSource. The ride sharing company asked recipients to, "Earn big on St. Patrick's Day-no luck needed." The message was sent to 179,000 members in advance of the big holiday.

The Email Privacy Act has been reintroduced into Congress and the new rules are getting support on both sides. The demand for these new standards speak to an overall concern with email privacy among consumers. With email privacy on the mind, marketers should also be wary of how they communicate with consumers and respect privacy. While personalization is useful, marketers need to find a balance to not be too creepy.

Late Apple founder Steve Jobs took a stab at creating an email system back in the 1980s. According to Nathaniel Borenstein, who developed the email part of Carnegie Mellon's Andrew Project, Jobs tried to hire Borenstein and his team. When they didn't bite, Jobs formed his own group and thus was born NexTMail. The various organizations working on the email projects resulted in an open standard approach instead of a walled garden.

The average open rates for emails sent by marketers in the UK is 24.88 percent so far this year, up .43 percent from last year, according to a new report Sign-up.to. The report revealed that average click-through rates were 3.42 percent, up a mere .29 percent from last year. In addition, click-to-open rates are 10.88 percent, essentially the same as the same period last year.