Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

mako.cc

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 400 posts

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

#171

Post by presentation »

wodenokoto wrote: post #170
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?

Idk the ability to reliably communicate with a large segment of the world population?

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

#172

Post by readsadhours »

drooopy wrote: post #114
readsadhours wrote: post #79

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.

This is irrelevant. Any country in the EU might do the same. I would hate to lose my domain because of this.

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

#173

Post by jesuscript »

isametry wrote: post #120
jesuscript wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This is a technology equivalent of “purposefully don’t drink water for several days and see yourself nearly die”.

It’s all perspective. I think your phone number is more like water. If anything happens to your phone, you can simply take one physical trip down to your carriers store and get a new one with the same number. That’s water.

A bunch of email accounts that your whole life is tied down to where you can’t even get someone on customer service on the line 24/7? No, that’s Soda.

I’m just saying, this is the diet equivalent of giving up sugary drinks and switching to water.

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

#174

Post by skbly7 »

Brajeshwar wrote: post #49

I think this is everywhere. In India, people in the departments, especially the Governments usually ask, "What is your Gmail?" Almost everyone uses Gmail here and it is extremely rare to find their own custom domain. I'm actually surprised that the Government Departments do not have a service that takes care of these! They will fine Google but almost all of the government email IDs are Gmail. I was one of those that…

> almost all of the government email IDs are Gmail.

I think you are mistaken.

Majority of the emails are on government server: https://email.gov.in/

They used to be on 3rd party provider till a few years back (but still never on Gmail).

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

#175

Post by andrepd »

juunpp wrote: post #2

I have actually been receiving much spam from gmail addresses lately and have considered banning the domain altogether. > I was surprised to find out that my friend Peter Eckersley — a very privacy conscious person who is Technology Projects Director at the EFF — used Gmail I find that the EFF does this more often than not, like how they also criticize Amazon for giving police warrant-less access to Ring cameras... a…

Yawn. That's a classic "you say we can improve society? yet you participate in society, curious". Yes they use Twitch because millions of people are there and they need to reach a wide audience.

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

#176

Post by upofadown »

kazinator wrote: post #56

Unless the e-mail you send is either encrypted with something like PGP or whatever, or else you send it directly from your machine your friend's SMTP server, using TLS, then the operator of any SMTP forwarding host in between could have your e-mail, not to mention someone just snooping traffic. Speaking of encrypted e-mail, if you send that to a gmail user, then Google only has the fact that that user received an e-m…

>...or else you send it directly from your machine your friend's SMTP server, using TLS, ...

That is normally what happens these days. Intermediate email forwarding is so rare as to be non-existent. Only a small percentage of email is sent unencrypted between servers[1].

Agreed that email should be encrypted and, perhaps more importantly, signed...

[1] https://articles.59.ca/doku.php?id=pgpfan:starttls

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

#177

Post by jesuscript »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #141
jesuscript wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> "Let your mind run circles around your fears and you’ll find out how little that email account owns you." This year I have recieved an email from a city councill if a city where I no longer live, that were about to sue me for underpaying some bill years ago. If I followed your advise I would be on the hook for serous money and headache

That email could have been sitting in your junk folder for all you know. Even with access to your account it would have been a dumb way to serve someone a summons.

Following my advice or not, email could have still fucked you.

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

#178

Post by jesuscript »

lexandstuff wrote: post #93
jesuscript wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Sounds like an insane inconvenience. Sorry, what was the point of doing all this again? Just to prove you can?

If it is just an inconvenience, then this exercise is unnecessary. This is more for those who believe they cannot survive without it (inconvenience vs survival).

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

#179

Post by ThunderSizzle »

YeBanKo wrote: post #135
cube00 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the way Google locks out accounts with no support or appeal I can't think of a worse registrar to use. I use my ISP's email address with my registrar, if they want to keep getting paid each month its in their interests to keep that email address working.

At this point some government entity should provide a way to have an inalienable electronic address. There are strong protections for regular mail, that ensure that mail gets delivered. Cell carriers are required to port numbers. Since email addresses are tied to domain, there should be some usps-like service that allows to have an address, that can be related to a provider of your choosing. And this address is tied…

No thank you. The government doesn't need even more power over my life.

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

#180

Post by zaik »

feanaro wrote: post #125
drooopy wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Then you probably should not buy an .eu domain. The registry states very clearly that .eu is in fact tied to your citizenship.
Post reply on HN