Customer-managed encryption for meil
From 1 October 2026, meil is introducing Bring Your Own Key, allowing private users and organisations to manage their own encryption keys for data across the service, including files, email, calendar data and more.
The feature is designed for customers with particularly strong requirements for privacy, compliance, internal governance and long-term control.
meil is already built around encryption, open standards and Norwegian data storage. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, with layered encryption controls, strict operational access boundaries and strong requirements for subprocessors and infrastructure providers. Customer content is not readable by underlying infrastructure suppliers.
With Bring Your Own Key, often shortened to BYOK, customers who want an additional level of control can manage the keys protecting their own data.
What is meil?
meil is a complete office suite for the European market, built on open-source technology, transparency and Norwegian data storage.
The service brings together email, calendar, contacts, files, documents, real-time collaboration and video meetings in one platform, operated by WAYSCloud from Norway. It is available for private users and businesses through several domains, including meil.no, meil.dk, meil.nu and onmeil.eu.
meil is designed as a privacy-conscious alternative to closed productivity ecosystems, with support for open standards such as IMAP, SMTP, CalDAV, CardDAV and WebDAV. The service is built without advertising, behavioural profiling or AI training on customer content.
Privacy as architecture, not an add-on
Privacy has been central to meil from the beginning. The introduction of BYOK extends that model by giving customers direct control over the cryptographic keys protecting their own data.
For organisations, this can support stricter internal policies, sector-specific compliance requirements and clearer separation between service operation and key custody. For private users, it offers a stronger form of personal control over the information they store and communicate through the service.
“Privacy has never been something we treat as an add-on,” says Knut Michael Haugland, CEO of WAYSCloud. “For meil, it has been part of the architecture from the beginning. Bring Your Own Key gives users and organisations a stronger form of control: they can use our service, while keeping direct responsibility for the keys that protect their own data.”
Built for higher compliance needs
Bring Your Own Key is intended for customers who want or need to manage encryption keys themselves.
In practice, this means that WAYSCloud can operate the service infrastructure, while the customer retains control over key material used to protect their data. This gives organisations a clearer model for governance, auditability and risk ownership.
The feature is particularly relevant for companies, professional environments and privacy-conscious users who want stronger guarantees around access control, data protection and operational independence.
Stronger control also means stronger responsibility
Customer-managed keys also change the risk model.
If a customer loses access to their encryption keys, the protected data cannot be recovered by WAYSCloud. There is no administrative override, recovery shortcut or supplier-side fallback that can make encrypted data readable again.
“This is an important boundary,” says Haugland. “Real control has to mean real responsibility. If customers choose to manage their own keys, they must also understand the consequences of losing them. We cannot recover data without the keys, and that is exactly the point.”
For that reason, WAYSCloud recommends that customers using BYOK establish clear internal routines for key storage, backup, access control, recovery procedures and compliance ownership before enabling the feature.
Part of a broader direction
The introduction of Bring Your Own Key reflects WAYSCloud’s broader work on transparent European infrastructure, stronger user control and reduced dependency on closed platform ecosystems.
Following positive reception from both private users and businesses, meil will continue to develop as a privacy-first office suite for the European market, with open-source foundations, Norwegian storage and long-term customer control as core principles.