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Less secure apps and your Google Account

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Re: Less secure apps and your Google Account

#131

Post by sgc »

bjt2n3904 wrote: post #111
auslegung wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You absolutely should own your own domain and use it to email somewhere besides Google. I use Fastmail but ProtonMail is great, tutanota, mailfence, etc. Getting locked out of your email is no joke you don’t want to be in that situation. I have a paid account with Fastmail and a free account with protonmail just in case something goes wrong with Fastmail I can transition my free protonmail account to paid and use it…

If you have a domain, that's just another liability for email security. Look at what NameCheap did. Imagine losing your domain for some reason -- even forgetting to renew. All your contacts need a new address now, and until then it's dropped emails. A custom domain is mostly a vanity measure. It does allow you to migrate to a new email service if your provider cancels your subscription, I suppose... But I'd rather on…

The entire point of your own domain is to provide continuity. Of course it's one more thing to worry about, but it also one more layer of protection (an important one).

Re: Less secure apps and your Google Account

#133

Post by merlinscholz »

bjt2n3904 wrote: post #111
auslegung wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You absolutely should own your own domain and use it to email somewhere besides Google. I use Fastmail but ProtonMail is great, tutanota, mailfence, etc. Getting locked out of your email is no joke you don’t want to be in that situation. I have a paid account with Fastmail and a free account with protonmail just in case something goes wrong with Fastmail I can transition my free protonmail account to paid and use it…

If you have a domain, that's just another liability for email security. Look at what NameCheap did. Imagine losing your domain for some reason -- even forgetting to renew. All your contacts need a new address now, and until then it's dropped emails. A custom domain is mostly a vanity measure. It does allow you to migrate to a new email service if your provider cancels your subscription, I suppose... But I'd rather on…

Password managers are just another liability. One more thing you could lose the password to. What if the service shuts down entirely?

Re: Less secure apps and your Google Account

#134

Post by mrtranscendence »

bjt2n3904 wrote: post #111
auslegung wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You absolutely should own your own domain and use it to email somewhere besides Google. I use Fastmail but ProtonMail is great, tutanota, mailfence, etc. Getting locked out of your email is no joke you don’t want to be in that situation. I have a paid account with Fastmail and a free account with protonmail just in case something goes wrong with Fastmail I can transition my free protonmail account to paid and use it…

If you have a domain, that's just another liability for email security. Look at what NameCheap did. Imagine losing your domain for some reason -- even forgetting to renew. All your contacts need a new address now, and until then it's dropped emails. A custom domain is mostly a vanity measure. It does allow you to migrate to a new email service if your provider cancels your subscription, I suppose... But I'd rather on…

This has happened to me, briefly. I once forgot to renew and lost access to email. Luckily I was able to fix the issue quickly.

I do kind of wish I had never gone down the route of using my own domain for email. I use gmail with it, and will now have to bear a recurring payment of $6 monthly (IIRC). I could move hosts but none of them are free to my knowledge, and a free service comes with its own risks anyway. Plus that's my primary Google account.

Now I feel locked in ... it's less about updating my contacts, as I don't field a lot of personal or business email from that account, but more about all of the services where my account is associated with that email address. Not to mention that I've logged into some sites via Google. It would be a royal pain to switch now.

Edit: Also, my domain is super awkward, sometimes doesn't fit in the field when I'm writing it down on a form, and tends to draw comments when I just want to get my business done and go on. ALSO the account name is different from the name I actually use day to day now -- it's James when everyone knows me as Jay.

Re: Less secure apps and your Google Account

#135

Post by jorgesborges »

Oops. I have small web apps that use gmail accounts to send mail via SMTP, but this requires turning on "allow less secure apps". Will this break those apps? I suspected this would happen eventually and it's been finicky the past year or so anyway. It was a lazy solution to begin with -- so, I'm setting a reminder about this for May 20th.

Re: Less secure apps and your Google Account

#136

Post by samtheDamned »

jefftk wrote: post #119

The sign-in method they're removing really is less secure: you're sending your full username and password to a third-party. Application-specific passwords ( https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833 ) and OAuth are much better. Disclosure: I work for Google, speaking only for myself

I agree, I have always hated having to give my google credentials to random apps instead of just using something like oauth where I can be more confident in the security of my credentials.

Re: Less secure apps and your Google Account

#137

Post by fartcannon »

bjt2n3904 wrote: post #111
auslegung wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You absolutely should own your own domain and use it to email somewhere besides Google. I use Fastmail but ProtonMail is great, tutanota, mailfence, etc. Getting locked out of your email is no joke you don’t want to be in that situation. I have a paid account with Fastmail and a free account with protonmail just in case something goes wrong with Fastmail I can transition my free protonmail account to paid and use it…

If you have a domain, that's just another liability for email security. Look at what NameCheap did. Imagine losing your domain for some reason -- even forgetting to renew. All your contacts need a new address now, and until then it's dropped emails. A custom domain is mostly a vanity measure. It does allow you to migrate to a new email service if your provider cancels your subscription, I suppose... But I'd rather on…

So without a domain whoever owns the domain you're using can deplatform you. The result is dropped emails at that address forever.

With your own domain, the registrar can pull a namecheap and cancel your country. The result is temporarily dropped emails while you transfer to another domain registrar.

You can set the registrar to autorenew.

Re: Less secure apps and your Google Account

#138

Post by tomxor »

Lucasoato wrote: post #36
tomxor wrote: post #16

I've noticed gmail randomly blocks Firefox these days under the pretence of "your browser may not be secure" (i.e it doesn't persist through page refreshes), similar to how they try to make you do a captcha unless you refresh the page... I seem to have less and less control over where and how I am allowed to sign in (even thought I'm using a U2F key), and as a result I'm definitely getting pushed closer to the thresh…

I've been using Firefox for years, never faced this issue before... have you tried updating your browser?

I'm using the latest Firefox available via flatpack on Debian (v97 at time of writing), and I believe this is the same as other platforms. As I said it happens randomly, there is no pattern, as if they are just trying their luck.

This is not a version issue, I suspect Google are just becoming more and more sensitive to users who don't fit their 99% of "uses chrome and doesn't block trackers" profile.

Re: Less secure apps and your Google Account

#139

Post by tomxor »

creatonez wrote: post #45
tomxor wrote: post #16

I've noticed gmail randomly blocks Firefox these days under the pretence of "your browser may not be secure" (i.e it doesn't persist through page refreshes), similar to how they try to make you do a captcha unless you refresh the page... I seem to have less and less control over where and how I am allowed to sign in (even thought I'm using a U2F key), and as a result I'm definitely getting pushed closer to the thresh…

This is often the result of browser extensions. Specifically, CDN replacement extensions like Decentraleyes or LocalCDN.

I only use uBlock origin, but also do DNS level ad and tracker blocking separately..

Re: Less secure apps and your Google Account

#140

Post by ThatMedicIsASpy »

lolinder wrote: post #48
rascul wrote: post #34

Google keeps making it more and more difficult for me to use their services. It's going to be painful when Google finally forces me off Gmail.

Suggestion? Start now. I moved my primary email to a custom domain a bit over a year ago, and it takes a while to slowly migrate everything over. You don't want to be doing that while under pressure from whatever it is that forces you off.

I switched to posteo a while ago. I don't need much so it is 1€/month for me.

https://posteo.de/en

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