Regarding security lock-outs, many countries have national strong identity systems set up, and Google or any other "root" identity provider could utilize those.
How likely is losing a Google account?
181–190 of 305 posts
Re: How likely is losing a Google account?
#182This reminds me, again, that I should look into setting up my own home mail server. Is there an off the shelf solution for this? I don't mind setting up another PC as a server for this, but how hard is it?
I would split it into two parts. First and most critical, is to set up your own address in a domain you control. As long as you control the address you can move it between providers. Then you can decide whether to self-host (which I would not) or use a commercial service. The problem with home-hosted email is, as most folks said many times, that an email sent from a non-major provider would be marked as spam at best…
That's a great point about spam, I had not considered that!
Re: How likely is losing a Google account?
#183yes.
Re: How likely is losing a Google account?
#184Using your own domain with a well-reputed registrar is the way to go IMO. It makes you independent of the email provider used. Registrars don’t run algorithms to lock out domain owners. You can also move between registrars when needed. Domains can be locked ("Client Transfer Prohibited") and set to auto-renew, which nowadays is the default. You can have an actual paper trail proving your domain ownership. Depending o…
For the 99+% of us who aren't computer savvy, "using your own domain with a well-reputed registrar..." is as achievable as suddenly speaking Sanskrit. Think outside the echo chamber.
While my recommendation was targeting the HN crowd, where I assume some level of computer savviness, buying a domain doesn’t require technical expertise. Wiring it up with an email provider may require some, although providers often provide good instructions, and, more pertinently, you can also buy this as a service, or have a friend or family member take care of it. The important part is that you own the domain.
I fully agree that it should be made easier. But people have to create the demand for that to improve.
Re: How likely is losing a Google account?
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would tell you that after using Fastmail, Gmail seems positively glacial and slow. Like, it's borderline "why would anyone put up with this, except maybe because they haven't used good email before". And we just got a huge fine for missing a bill here because a family Gmail account spam-binned it, which isn't an issue for my Fastmail, which handles spam better.
> which isn't an issue for my Fastmail, which handles spam better. That's interesting, can you expand on this?
My Fastmail account receives, at most, a handful of spam emails a week. And Fastmail uses a personal spam filter heavily weighted off your own mail and reported spam as opposed to the whole world's emails. Obviously it has weighting rules that are easily understandable and readable in the headers, but my own trained filter has a really strong impact on the spam score.
Whereas I find Gmail both often misclassifies legitimate mail as spam, and fails to catch obvious spam, the biggest issue is it rarely is fixable by my actions, because it's mostly based on Gmail-as-a-whole's perspective on spam. My Gmail is also receives an absolute deluge of junk even though I haven't used it as my primary mail since 2016. I have a somewhat short Gmail address and I strongly suspect it gets dictionary-spammed because the server name is a given, it also gets signed up to random things I never signed up for (including the NRA and Shutterstock, both of whom I had to contact and ask to remove me).
Re: How likely is losing a Google account?
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> I dont think it's surprising that they make trade-offs to support that model. Just think of how many support staff you'd need to support 1.5 billion users! Google has a shitload of money, they can afford hiring enough staff. Cost is a lame excuse here.
Someone made a good point a few months ago: if you can’t afford to support your users, you have a broken business model.
The provide support for users that pay them, and for advertisers. Their business model is to sell things, and it is working pretty well. They can certainly 'afford' it, but they don't want to, and your complaint as a 'free' tier user means little to them.
What is needed is legislation or some practiced standard regarding real-person online-id so that losing access to your email account doesn't nuke your ability to operate online in a way that requires you to verify your identity even pseudonymously.
Re: How likely is losing a Google account?
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any company with a business model that takes your money and gives you service is inherently more secure than one that sells your eyeballs to advertisers in exchange for giving you free stuff. The former companies have a direct incentive to keep giving you service as part of their core business. The latter are really only paying attention to the money they get from advertisers.
>Any company with a business model that takes your money and gives you service is inherently more secure than one that sells your eyeballs to advertisers in exchange for giving you free stuff. If anything, companies try to double-dip and serve multiple masters. See: the security and privacy mess in smart TVs. Last I checked, LG wasn't giving their TVs away.
> LG wasn't giving their TVs away.
No, but they're selling them at cost, and using monetization tactics to make up for that over the long term.
Re: How likely is losing a Google account?
#188i bet google could charge 1k/yr and have thousands of paying customer. I would.
Re: How likely is losing a Google account?
#189It's true that every service has to deal with the same policy and lockout problems, but that doesn't lead to the conclusion that the risk is the same. I pay for FastMail because 1. if something goes wrong, I can reach a human without needing to write a viral blog post first. Other services pay for a customer service department. 2. I trust FastMail more to not shut down their product because they got bored. Sure Gmail…
I can't find any information on what happens if you stop paying for a Fastmail account. 1Password for example freezes your account in read-only mode. It's documented that Fastmail will re-use addresses for free trials and when a user requests to cancel [1]. It isn't clear what would happen if for some reason your card expired, they stopped accepting it [2], or your bank messed up and blocked the transaction [3]. To m…
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Re: How likely is losing a Google account?
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't find any information on what happens if you stop paying for a Fastmail account. 1Password for example freezes your account in read-only mode. It's documented that Fastmail will re-use addresses for free trials and when a user requests to cancel [1]. It isn't clear what would happen if for some reason your card expired, they stopped accepting it [2], or your bank messed up and blocked the transaction [3]. To m…
I had an issue with the credit card used to renew a Fastmail account. Fastmail sent me emails about the issue, but it took a couple days to fix everything on my end. Even after the renew date passed my email functioned as normal, so there seems to be, at least, a grace period. Not sure what would have happened if it went on for longer though.
>Not sure what would have happened if it went on for longer though.
When I missed the payment they sent me this:
"You can still use your account for now. If the subscription is not renewed soon, sending and receiving email will be disabled. If the subscription is still not renewed after a few weeks, access will be disabled. Eventually, the entire account will be deleted, including all stored messages."