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

271–280 of 400 posts

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

#271

Post by belorn »

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…

If you change your security model from gmail to a registrar you need to redo the risk assessment, or rely on someone else to do that risk assessment for your (i.e. base your decision on third-party recommendations/best practices).

A free service is covered under very different customer protection than a paid product, but your country of origin matter as does the country where the registrar is located and the country where the registry is located (registry is generally the upstream provider of the registrar). It would be difficult legal fight when the TLD is .eu, operated by Belgium company (EURid), with the domain registered by a American company (Namecheap), while you the customer is located in Russia. Your bank could also in theory be a forth country involved.

If you want legal protection as a domain owner the best advice is generally to use a cTLD of your own country with registrar located also within your own borders. It naturally depend a bit on how stable the country is and how good the customer protection laws.

I also strongly recommend against registrars where responsibility is on you to renew the domain, rather than those that have contracts that run continuously until cancellation (who will also bill you if you fail the payment). For domain names it is a better model for both the customer and registrar, in contrast for a subscription service like a news paper. It is a bad default to automatically loose the domain name.

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

#272

Post by sakawa »

asim wrote: post #155
sedeki wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I mean it's like any real world thing, potentially non profit. A group of people elected to run public services for everyone else which people pay a fair amount to use. Something that's constantly reviewed, where new members can join and others can move on.

Yes, on a small scale, but they do exist! Just look up at Riseup, Disroot weho.st, or Autistici/Inventati.

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

#273

Post by thfuran »

sumedh wrote: post #252
bushbaba wrote: post #41

The US should use the current market decline to split up Google. Splitting it up would allow for more competition and overall improve the tech sector. Ideally you'd see the government force a split up Youtube, Cloud, Search, and their Ad Exchange into separate companies.

> Ideally you'd see the government force a split up Youtube, Cloud, Search, and their Ad Exchange into separate companies. Google will argue that keeping these services in one company gives free access to consumers. How can the US govt prove that it harms consumers?

I'd much prefer the standard of "harms competition" except in cases of natural monopoly.

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

#274

Post by Karunamon »

sumedh wrote: post #251
jerieljan wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One good case I can think of is Crinacle. Very popular for his audio measurements site and does YouTube. His Google account got flagged for something suspicious, Google had it shut down and without good explanations. He can't even get help through YouTube support and while the old channel remains, the Google account behind it appears disabled today. The only choice he had was to file a request that lead to nowhere an…

> His Google account got flagged for something suspicious, Was that because of his gmail or Youtube?

That is just it, they never tell you

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

#275

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

rglullis wrote: post #228
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right, you won't lose access to your emails, you'll lose access to your address, which really is the bit that I care more about - losing ability to log into sites and services is what really scares me about losing my email. But now the important question - how does a web3 domain name solve the domain problem any better than just buying a domain, especially considering that "Permission to fail" is being touted…

> losing ability to log into sites and services is what really scares me about losing my email. That is also not a problem. Maybe current "login with web3" implementations rely only on your primary ENS record for authentication, but there is nothing stopping a MFA system where the ENS name is only one of the factors. E.g: you could build a system that uses ENS as the first factor and a regular PGP client cert as the…

Let me repeat my question:

> how does a web3 domain name solve the domain problem any better than just buying a domain?

I don't see how you addressed that. Apparently we would need to implement whole new systems? I understand, you gotta bring try to bring it into the domain and get belligerent to obfuscate the answers to simple questions, but I don't see how this addresses my concern.

> stop arguing like you are the only one aware of the current limitations and that the thousands of people working on the space

Ah, ok, so this is all in theory. Simpler answer would be "it isn't, but maybe one day it is." Thanks, I read between the lines and answered my own question!

> Before spewing ignorant arguments, you should learn a thing or two.

Am I being blockchain negged?

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

#276

Post by delusional »

rglullis wrote: post #219
delusional wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the sake of argument, let's say that all email was hosted on ENS. Let's say that somebody , doesn't matter who, went ahead and forked the chain into ENS'. We now have two disconnected chains, ENS and ENS'. If I were to buy a domain on ENS', i would not also own the domain on ENS, so someone else buys that. Who now receives the mail sent to that domain? If your choice in any way depends on the configuration of the…

That has so many misunderstandings about how internet protocols and cryptography works, I don't even know where to start responding.

Give it a shot.

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

#277

Post by behringer »

belorn wrote: post #271
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…

If you change your security model from gmail to a registrar you need to redo the risk assessment, or rely on someone else to do that risk assessment for your (i.e. base your decision on third-party recommendations/best practices). A free service is covered under very different customer protection than a paid product, but your country of origin matter as does the country where the registrar is located and the country…

Can I get a recommendation on a service that bills?

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

#278

Post by rbc »

I'm still operating a personal email service. It's become more challenging, using TLS, DKIM, SPF, and anti-spam technologies, but I think it is still worth it to keep some measure of control. It makes troubleshooting easier when you can see the logs from the MTA. I've also become a fan of the OpenBSD smtpd/pf/spamd triumvirate for controlling spam. It's effective, without being super complicated.

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

#279

Post by dingaling »

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…

I was entering my e-mail address on booking.com recently ( format bookingcom@domain.tld ) and it thoughtfully suggested I'd made a typo, didn't I mean bookingcom@gmail.com?
Post reply on HN