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

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

#161

Post by woodruffw »

yieldcrv wrote: post #152
moffkalast wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well you are still at the mercy of whoever's maintaining the network, aka some random-ass people all over the world. Aside from the few main ones, crypto networks are infamously ever changing and you're more likely to register a domain on something that won't even exist in 2 years because it collapsed completely. Maybe Eth is to big to fail now, but maybe it isn't.

anti-fragility, permission to fail, rapid iteration basically risk isn't controversial, and it rapidly iterates to more and more resilient systems

“Permission to fail” is a desirable property in a research setting, not a global name service. This justification is in tension with the one offered above, and there’s been no evidence so far that “web3” is becoming more resilient instead of less resilient.

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

#162

Post by abiloe »

switch007 wrote: post #100
int_19h wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making sure that your domain registration is always current is not a difficult thing, though. You can register for fairly long periods of time, and set up multiple alerts to manually renew long before it expires.

My register doesn’t allow registrations longer than 1 year. Their reason: “ We've found that longer registration periods lead to a higher chance of customers losing or forgetting their account details or missing notifications and ultimately letting their domains expire due to outdated contact information or expired credit card details.” I’m wondering whether that’s valid and if I should find a new registrar…

> My register doesn’t allow registrations longer than 1 year.

Ummm.. then maybe get a better registar? It's not like there aren't many to choose from.

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

#163

Post by fHr »

rglullis wrote: post #130
YetAnotherNick wrote: post #42

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…

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".

Ofcourse it could be part of the solution but just slapping current available solutions onto this problem won't solve it. It could be part of a solution I agree but in it's current state I rather not complicate this further with a technology in it's infancy.

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

#164

Post by KolmogorovComp »

YetAnotherNick wrote: post #42
cglan wrote: 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…

To reduce that risk you can always use multiple domains from separate registrars that redirect to the same address.

Especially if you can use service X to restore access on service Y (which is often the case), make sure those use independent domains.

As often increased security comes at the expense of convenience and cost, but it can be worth it.

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

#165

Post by abiloe »

texaslonghorn5 wrote: post #62
kirktrue wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> cos of Covid namecheap sold my domain to a squatter Can you elaborate? As a Namecheap customer, this is concerning.

I'm not sure if this was added after your comment, but in the second line of their post jamiek88 said > To this day I have no idea why the card didn't pay as always. One can infer that the credit card did not auto-pay, the domain expired, and Namecheap immediately resold the domain to a squatter rather than first reaching out to jamiek88 to confirm that the non-renewal was intentional.

> Namecheap immediately resold the domain to a squatter

No I don't see how their post allows one to infer that Namecheap "immediately" resold the domain. Their policy is a 30 day grace period, and within that 30 days the domain should become non functional, so if you're actively using it then you would know something is up.

Sounds like jamiek88 was squatting on a somewhat desirable domain and is just sad they couldn't follow some basic instructions.

I have no idea what the "because of COVID" thing is about.

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

#166

Post by iLoveOncall »

esskay wrote: post #160
dav43 wrote: post #158

Unpopular on HN, but I just don't see a problem with Google having my email, for what they provide me. Almost unlimited uptime, global redundancy, best search experience, storage all for free. I'm ok with the trade off for now. Its just not worth the hassle.

Here's a hypothetical (although as of right now admittedly VERY unlikely scenario): It's 2035. Google has continued a worldwide decline with the invention of several highly accurate AI drive search systems deeply integrated into technology. Their video streaming service, which started declinging in the mis 2020s has just closed down following years of losses. To try and regain its financial footing Alphabet has decid…

I would still 100% go with Gmail.

I avoid 15 years of headaches and cost and only have to spend a few days of work transferring emails to a new provider? Sign me up.

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

#167

Post by denton-scratch »

Tepix wrote: post #101
MrPatan wrote: post #89

Unencrypted email is not private, never has been, never will be. The real problem is handing over your digital identity to Google, not the content of emails.

Nowdays, even unencrypted email can be private, thanks to opportunistic encryption. Not when you're using Gmail of course.

Opportunistic encryption only encrypts mail transport between mail servers. Both the sending and receiving servers can read the plaintext.

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

#168

Post by dav43 »

esskay wrote: post #160
dav43 wrote: post #158

Unpopular on HN, but I just don't see a problem with Google having my email, for what they provide me. Almost unlimited uptime, global redundancy, best search experience, storage all for free. I'm ok with the trade off for now. Its just not worth the hassle.

Here's a hypothetical (although as of right now admittedly VERY unlikely scenario): It's 2035. Google has continued a worldwide decline with the invention of several highly accurate AI drive search systems deeply integrated into technology. Their video streaming service, which started declinging in the mis 2020s has just closed down following years of losses. To try and regain its financial footing Alphabet has decid…

When they start sliding down that slippery slope I'll act, but until then the service vs. cost is balanced enough for me.

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

#169

Post by denton-scratch »

Barrin92 wrote: post #30

">I have run my own email server which I use for all of my non-work correspondence. I do so to keep autonomy, control, and privacy over my email" if you want to retain control or privacy over correspondence, email is a horrible medium because by design anything can be forwarded, shared and copy&pasted trivially and this is done all the time. One guy is enough to leak an entire email chain. Good rule for email is, tre…

> Good rule for email is, treat writing email as if you're speaking publicly.

...and if you treat it that way, then it's not a "horrible medium" (for "publicly", I would prefer to substitute "on the record").

If you don't like email, that's cool; there are plenty of other messaging services you can use instead. But:

- Your bank doesn't use them

- Your friends don't use them

- They are usually proprietary and opaque

- You might lose your account, with no recourse

Email is the universal baseline, the single communications channel that nearly everyone has access to.

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

#170

Post by wodenokoto »

dav43 wrote: post #158

Unpopular on HN, but I just don't see a problem with Google having my email, for what they provide me. Almost unlimited uptime, global redundancy, best search experience, storage all for free. I'm ok with the trade off for now. Its just not worth the hassle.

Isn't the point of the article that as a non-user of gmail you can't opt out of giving google all your email? It's nice that you get a service for providing your emails to google, but what do I get?
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