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Don’t Mess with The Google

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Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#421

Post by rdtsc »

kybernetyk wrote: post #260
rdtsc wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might have to switch at some point. It is stories like these that are freaking me out. Were there any instances of them being DoS-ed or you not getting emails from others? I would also be afraid one day if Google sees people fleeing to them, they'd come in and buy them. I'd almost whish there was a public trust or non-profit who would run an email server. Post office is a government service (for better or for worse…

That's why I'm using my own domain now for emails. Even if my email provider goes away I still keep the address.

Good point. I have an un-used domain. Maybe this is the time to finally use it.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#422

Post by jdietrich »

ucaetano wrote: post #249
jdietrich wrote: post #118

Rule Zero: Never rely on a URL that you don't control. Use your own domain name for your e-mail addresses. Use your own domain name for canonical links to content. If you control the URLs, you do not depend on any one provider. Rule One: If you only have one copy, you have no copies. It is an act of faith to assume that a Youtube video or a file in Google Drive will remain available, just as it's an act of faith to a…

And do you ever control an URL? No, you don't. So the only way to satisfy Rule Zero is by never engaging in any URL-related activity.

>And do you ever control an URL? No, you don't.

Well, yes. If I own a domain name, I can point that domain at any resource I choose. I might be technically "renting" the name from a registry via a registrar, but for all practical purposes I'm in control of it.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#423

Post by londons_explore »

pksadiq wrote: post #223

The good (really, the bad) news is that whatever seems to have happened, haven't really happened. No user's data is ever deleted by Google (or any other company) ever, even if you have deleted your account. If you run some hosting company, you know it. You have backups and backups of backups. Once I contacted a website who frequently SMS'd me to scrub my phone number and to not do that again. They did it right, but a…

At Googles scale you can be sure that if they didn't delete things they said they did they would be in big trouble.

In the modern world it isn't acceptable to keep backups indefinitely. Big web companies keep backups for 14 days. When you close your account, 30 days later they delete it off the main servers, 44 days later they delete it from the backups, which might take 4 days in case of a national holiday or strike in the drive-crushing department, so 48 days.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#424

Post by x0x0 »

brongondwana wrote: post #298
x0x0 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ime: it stays very fast, even with 1.5k emails in inbox, ~30k emails / 2.5G total in various folders. Also, changes propagate faster even than gmail. If you have your inbox open on 2 computers and move an email out of your inbox on one of them, you'll see it replicated in near real time on the second computer. I don't know how they do it, but it works really well.

You can know how we do it if you like: https://blog.fastmail.com/2014/12/02/dec-3-push-it-real-good... and how we do the initial load as well: https://blog.fastmail.com/2014/12/15/dec-15-putting-the-fast...

Thanks, that was fascinating. And props to the salt-n-pepa fan!

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#425

Post by jdietrich »

nilved wrote: post #380
jdietrich wrote: post #118

Rule Zero: Never rely on a URL that you don't control. Use your own domain name for your e-mail addresses. Use your own domain name for canonical links to content. If you control the URLs, you do not depend on any one provider. Rule One: If you only have one copy, you have no copies. It is an act of faith to assume that a Youtube video or a file in Google Drive will remain available, just as it's an act of faith to a…

> Rule Zero: Never rely on a URL that you don't control. Use your own domain name for your e-mail addresses. Use your own domain name for canonical links to content. If you control the URLs, you do not depend on any one provider. You do not own your domain name. It's better than using google.com, but your domain name can be stolen or seized just as well.

Domains can be stolen or seized, but somehow the internet still manages to function. If you're not doing anything silly or shady, domain names are extremely durable. They're certainly more durable than an e-mail address or a subdomain on someone else's domain, more durable than a phone number or a street address. If you can choose only one identifier by which people can contact you, there is no better choice than a domain name under your own control.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#426

Post by x0x0 »

jjnoakes wrote: post #353
brongondwana wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"a payment notice from my student loan that fastmail absolutely positively refuses to believe is not spam" That's because it's not spam. I'm pretty sure there's a blog post coming soon about the difference between spam and "email I don't want to receive". If you just don't want to hear from a particular email address, the way to stop it is to put an explicit discard rule for that address in your Rules screen. Likely…

I think you misread the double negative?

You're right / I wasn't clear.

The student loan confirmation is sent to spam every month. I mark it as not spam.

In their defense, the message is full of all caps words that look like a sentence formatted from a sql query with little attention paid to formatting plus it has all sorts of spam words (bank, payment confirmation, loan, etc).

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#428

Post by x0x0 »

brongondwana wrote: post #302
x0x0 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ime: their spam detection is definitely inferior to gmail; I've had 2-5 false negatives per month (spam not detected) and a handful of false positives over 3+ years. Plus a payment notice from my student loan that fastmail absolutely positively refuses to believe is not spam not matter how many times I so mark it. I've had zero deliverability issues. edit: to be clear, the spam detection works well, and if you're goi…

"a payment notice from my student loan that fastmail absolutely positively refuses to believe is not spam" That's because it's not spam. I'm pretty sure there's a blog post coming soon about the difference between spam and "email I don't want to receive". If you just don't want to hear from a particular email address, the way to stop it is to put an explicit discard rule for that address in your Rules screen. Likely…

The address killfile sounds awesome.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#429

Post by ryanmarsh »

This is why Apple and Google will eventually become horrible evil companies. I won't do anything to piss off Google or Apple because my life is stored in their ecosystems. This, they can get away with being shittier than AT&T.

The financial loss I would sustain if Google locked me out would be substantial. The emotional loss if Apple locked me out would also be substantial. My entire personal life is basically in iCloud in some form or another.

My situation might be a little extreme because I travel constantly and stay in touch with my family digitally but my tight coupling with a digital ecosystem will become the norm.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#430

Post by darreld »

Being locked out of my Gmail account is something I have worried about in the past. I have moved all essential email traffic to a domain I control. I do worry about my wife and her photos though. She uses Apple photos primarily but syncs them to Google Photos.

Is there an open-source cloud photo-management solution like Nextcloud or something?

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