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Google has most of my email because it has all of yours (2014)

mako.cc

121–130 of 400 posts

Re: Google has most of my email because it has all of yours (2014)

#121
post #26

Having your own email/domain isn’t about privacy. Email has become essentially the key to almost everything in modern life. If I lose access to my email I lose access to basically everything I own and it would be a massive hassle to switch emails. Banks, schools, apps, etc. Often times these services won’t even let you change to a new email if you don’t have access to an existing one. Some use email as 2factor. It’s…

Go through that exercise of ditching that email. You will find out the 2-3 things you need absolute plan a/b/c for. Seriously, reset your email password to something you can never remember and write it down and have someone hold it for a month (don’t tell them what is it, tuck it in an envelope). Let your mind run circles around your fears and you’ll find out how little that email account owns you. Freezing one credi…

> Then you’ll make a new email, and you’ll never add that much cruft to it ever again.

What cruft are you talking about specifically?

Re: Google has most of my email because it has all of yours (2014)

#122
post #10

google/gmail is also one of the principal agents which declares by fiat "your own domain self-run mail is spam because I think its spam" which then propagates to other mail providers. SPF/DKIM no matter: if they decide it's spammy, un-doing this decision is appeal to a star chamber you cannot interact with directly.

> which then propagates to other mail providers

Have you checked your mail server is configured properly and it doesn't act as open relay?

> SPF/DKIM no matter

SPF/DKIM is not enough, I needed DMARC and DNS PTR. You need static IP from some serious hosting, make sure IP is not black listed, dynamic home ISP addresses are out of question. Also register with Outlook SNDS https://sendersupport.olc.protection.outlook.com/snds/ , and Google FBL https://postmaster.google.com/ .

It is a lot of hops but I have done it once a few years ago and now it all works fine for me, got 100% delivery for small traffic.

Re: Google has most of my email because it has all of yours (2014)

#123
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Costs more but no one can kick you out unless you stop paying your mortgage. that. depends. You can host it cheaply if shared with family members, may be cheaper than paying for email provider.

Well this leads to my next question. Community led infrastructure. Why is it not a thing? I think that's social housing in the real world. Why does it not exist for digital services? I know we open source things but nothing is run by a community. A potential outcome is to run email as a community.

How would that contractually work in practice? Can you give an example of what you mean?

Re: Google has most of my email because it has all of yours (2014)

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it known that domain registrars are better than GMail in this regard? Not asking sarcastically, but I had my domain taken over by registrar(not released to public, just registrar took control of it) after few week of notice when auto renew failed to charge my credit card, and my credit card was working fine elsewhere. Also many registrar like Namecheap cancelled subscription for Russian customers during this invas…

I see this advice (that you should use a custom domain) and it makes me a bit hesitant in that I’m not sure I necessarily trust a registrar more than I trust Google not to allow phishing/hijack/deletion. That said there’s really two issues if you seperate out the inbox - access to new emails, and access to the historical emails you’ve accumulated. The second can be partially helped by downloading all mail + attachmen…

I find thinking about the whole thing far too stressful.

Especially now that so many of my photos and documents are 'backed up' to Google photos and drive.

Balancing the risk of these black swan events is beyond me. Why ever would Google ban me? But they might. Why ever would Tutanota mess up my private domain? Or ban me? But they might!

Re: Google has most of my email because it has all of yours (2014)

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People from the UK that had an .eu domain were unable to renew it after brexit.

The difference here is that people from the UK voted for losing the right to renew their .eu domains.

Not all of them did. Domains shouldn't be related to citizenship anyway.

Re: Google has most of my email because it has all of yours (2014)

#126
post #37
post #26

Having your own email/domain isn’t about privacy. Email has become essentially the key to almost everything in modern life. If I lose access to my email I lose access to basically everything I own and it would be a massive hassle to switch emails. Banks, schools, apps, etc. Often times these services won’t even let you change to a new email if you don’t have access to an existing one. Some use email as 2factor. It’s…

Using your own domain also has advantages in terms of being able to use aliases for different websites so (when, not if) an address gets leaked you can > /dev/null it. If you're cheap like me you can give family members their own subdomain so everyone can have aliases for the cost of a single domain. It's sad to think back on myself nearly two decades ago when Gmail first launched as invitation service and I thought…

Not defending big G here in the slightest but you can do that with Gmail aliases too: Someaddr+alias@gmail resolves to Someaddr@gmail.

Re: Google has most of my email because it has all of yours (2014)

#127
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find their messaging sometimes does not tie well with their actions. Not everybody can be RMS. As an EFF supporter, I don't want them to waste my donations by withdrawing from the world and handicapping themselves unnecessarily.

you dont want them to live by their principles? if they dont, who will?

Is boycotting Amazon a principle they even have?

Using ring cameras for their offices would be not adhering to their principles.

The eff doesn’t strike me as the “you did something bad so now I boycott you“ kind of organization.

Re: Google has most of my email because it has all of yours (2014)

#128

what is the thing with gmail in 2022 other than lock in?

I tried to move away from the legacy free Google Apps thingy when they threatened to force everyone to pay business rates and even though Gmail isn't what it once was, the competition isn't great either. The one that everyone keeps raving about is located in Australia (which has non-existing data protection laws), most privacy-focused ones are cumbersome and annoying (limited functionality, no IMAP, only our own apps, etc.), the big commercial ones are expensive (this is for family), and a few were half broken (IMAP should work but never did etc.) ... I found a single one from Europe that came reasonably close to Gmail, but then Google decided to keep their Google Apps thingy free for non-commercial use, and I'm happy I don't have to worry about those email accounts for at least a couple more years. Gmail works well in all respects, is well-supported everywhere, and since I'm using my own domain I retain the option of switching if need be. I don't think I have a single person I actually exchange emails with that wouldn't leak them to Google anyway, so why bother.

Re: Google has most of my email because it has all of yours (2014)

#129
post #26

Having your own email/domain isn’t about privacy. Email has become essentially the key to almost everything in modern life. If I lose access to my email I lose access to basically everything I own and it would be a massive hassle to switch emails. Banks, schools, apps, etc. Often times these services won’t even let you change to a new email if you don’t have access to an existing one. Some use email as 2factor. It’s…

[deleted]

Re: Google has most of my email because it has all of yours (2014)

#130
post #26

Having your own email/domain isn’t about privacy. Email has become essentially the key to almost everything in modern life. If I lose access to my email I lose access to basically everything I own and it would be a massive hassle to switch emails. Banks, schools, apps, etc. Often times these services won’t even let you change to a new email if you don’t have access to an existing one. Some use email as 2factor. It’s…

Is it known that domain registrars are better than GMail in this regard? Not asking sarcastically, but I had my domain taken over by registrar(not released to public, just registrar took control of it) after few week of notice when auto renew failed to charge my credit card, and my credit card was working fine elsewhere. Also many registrar like Namecheap cancelled subscription for Russian customers during this invas…

Now you know why there are still some people that still take "web3" seriously. It's the only system where you are not at the mercy of some external entity to be always benevolent.

Seriously, ENS and Handshake alone should be enough of a reason to silence all of those who keep repeating "but blockchain has no real world applications".

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