How to Send a Password-Protected Email for Free If you want to send a private message to someone and ensure that they are the only ones who read it, protecting it with a password only the recipient knows is a solid choice. Fortunately, secure email providers ProtonMail and Tutanota make this process easy and highly secure, and you can use both for free. Why Send a Password-Protected Email? When you send an email to a standard webmail address like Gmail, the server receives the email and notifies the recipient. The server can see the entire contents of the email, and any devices set up for use with that email address can notify the recipient of a new message.