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

Bye Bye Gmail

m24tom.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 130 posts

Re: Bye Bye Gmail

#101

Post by realaaa »

chias wrote: post #49
puttycat wrote: post #22

I have more than 20 years of email in my gmail account. How do I even start migrating? And even if I migrate, I will need to keep my address alive and forwarding to my new address at least for a few years. So no privacy gains there either. Does anyone have concrete advice as to how to make the transition?

My gmail address was also almost exactly 20 years old when I migrated two years ago. Here's how I did it: -- 1. Register your domain (if you're doing that) and get fastmail set up -- I remember feeling a physical discomfort clicking "register" on fastmail, it felt like such an insanely impossible thing to do. 2. Set up the IMAP link so that anything sent to your gmail gets delivered to fastmail. Doing so also allows…

this is the way ! thanks for that, still on my list also, even though I know all the steps, it's just .. daunting

Re: Bye Bye Gmail

#103

Post by woleium »

palata wrote: post #78

> My email is now being hosted by Microsoft, [...] Then I guess it's off to Switzerland ( https://proton.me/about ); I am all for moving away from Gmail, but I think this is completely the wrong way to do it. Why go through the hassle of changing your @gmail for @microsoft (or whatever it is?), already thinking about moving to @proton.me in the future? Get your own domain, and then you won't depend on the service pro…

google hosts 1/4 of all emails. They will probably have most of your email anyway

Re: Bye Bye Gmail

#104

Post by coffe2mug »

stonogo wrote: post #86
whyagaindavid wrote: post #50

https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/google-has-most-of-my-email-be... Sure. Google Has Most of My Email Because It Has All of Yours

I’m not sure what to do except encourage others to consider, in the wake of the Snowden revelations and everything else, whether you really want Google to have all your email. And half of mine. Looks like this article and the one you're replying to are in agreement.

Many businesses use office365 or Google.

They then have all your email. Fingerprint.

Big tech,.NSA, 5 eyes won the game. No chance unless something truly citizen oriented happens in most countries.

Re: Bye Bye Gmail

#105

Post by eviks »

nine_k wrote: post #19

OK, while I briefly have a bit of your attention: what would you advise to use instead? What I need: * Server-side filters. * Tags. No, not folders. Many of my emails have 2-3 tags, some have 4-5. I wonder if it can even map to IMAP4; I see a few ways to model it. * Good deliverability. * Reasonable spam protection. * Not hugely expensive. Ideally near-free, or self-hosted. What are some options?

> * Tags. No, not folders.

Why not both?

Re: Bye Bye Gmail

#106

Post by goku12 »

woleium wrote: post #103
palata wrote: post #78

> My email is now being hosted by Microsoft, [...] Then I guess it's off to Switzerland ( https://proton.me/about ); I am all for moving away from Gmail, but I think this is completely the wrong way to do it. Why go through the hassle of changing your @gmail for @microsoft (or whatever it is?), already thinking about moving to @proton.me in the future? Get your own domain, and then you won't depend on the service pro…

google hosts 1/4 of all emails. They will probably have most of your email anyway

They never said anything about keeping their messages away from Google. It's about having some agency.

One fine morning, you'll find yourself locked out of your gmail account and every other Google service because they just decided that something you said isn't politically correct. You'll also be locked out of any external thrid-party services that rely on Google's OAuth service, email 2FA or verification. You'll never find any help to restore any of that, except to write a whiny blog post and hope that it goes viral on HN or something. It's not an indignity you want to live with.

Another scenario is Google changing their ToS or their service degrading (especially like their really bad spam filters these days). You don't really have a choice of migrating, because you'll have to change your email address as well.

That doesn't happen when you have your own domain. If they do something wrong, you just take your domain to another provider. And all these are worth doing while your gmail is still active, because it will take a few months to migrate your third-party services and your important correspondences over to your new account.

And finally, I really hate the pervasive argument and attitude on HN in the lines of "They trample on us regardless. Might as well learn to live under their feet". Why do you deny yourself self-respect like this? Even if the odds seem insurmountable, it's worth resisting the tyranny in voice and in action. And your voice is important to other people, even if you don't know it. Your defeatist attitude can influence them as much as your relentless defiance can. Choose how you want to influence the society.

Re: Bye Bye Gmail

#107

Post by nunez »

palata wrote: post #78

> My email is now being hosted by Microsoft, [...] Then I guess it's off to Switzerland ( https://proton.me/about ); I am all for moving away from Gmail, but I think this is completely the wrong way to do it. Why go through the hassle of changing your @gmail for @microsoft (or whatever it is?), already thinking about moving to @proton.me in the future? Get your own domain, and then you won't depend on the service pro…

Moving to Fastmail from Gmail workspace was an excellent decision. Could not have been easier and I get proper push email in the Apple client.

Re: Bye Bye Gmail

#108

Post by nunez »

pveierland wrote: post #59

Just disabled the "Smart features" setting in Gmail. Disabling this feature force-disables these other settings: - Grammar - Spelling - Auto-correct Pretty dark UX to force users into an all AI or nothing situation. PS1: Yes, I've paid for Google One for years and I'm not just a free user. PS2: Yes, these features are entirely possible to provide without training on your specific user data.

These don't disable Gemini. You can disable it completely if you pay for Workspace, but you can also use a Hide Gemini extension to hide most pop-ups and nags.

Re: Bye Bye Gmail

#109

Post by chias »

realaaa wrote: post #101
chias wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My gmail address was also almost exactly 20 years old when I migrated two years ago. Here's how I did it: -- 1. Register your domain (if you're doing that) and get fastmail set up -- I remember feeling a physical discomfort clicking "register" on fastmail, it felt like such an insanely impossible thing to do. 2. Set up the IMAP link so that anything sent to your gmail gets delivered to fastmail. Doing so also allows…

this is the way ! thanks for that, still on my list also, even though I know all the steps, it's just .. daunting

Yeah, I feel that. But I promise you, within one week I had one single regret: that I had not done this years ago.

Also, I very much recommend using your own domain. It greatly eases the feeling of having to commit, because your email address is not tied to your provider. That is, if you ever decide fastmail is not for you, next time the switch will be invisible to everyone else.

Re: Bye Bye Gmail

#110

Post by soraminazuki »

woleium wrote: post #103
palata wrote: post #78

> My email is now being hosted by Microsoft, [...] Then I guess it's off to Switzerland ( https://proton.me/about ); I am all for moving away from Gmail, but I think this is completely the wrong way to do it. Why go through the hassle of changing your @gmail for @microsoft (or whatever it is?), already thinking about moving to @proton.me in the future? Get your own domain, and then you won't depend on the service pro…

google hosts 1/4 of all emails. They will probably have most of your email anyway

Except it's not the '00s anymore and most emails don't come from personal gmail accounts. Almost every single email that people receive are automated ones that come from corporations.
Post reply on HN