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An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

moddedbear.com

111–120 of 220 posts

Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#112
post #7

But can I still give all my emails to OpenAI?? (semi-serious question because I’m currently very opposed, but I’m afraid of my future decisions)

Sure, if you really want to, you connect whatever AI you like: https://www.fastmail.com/blog/an-mcp-server-for-fastmail/ – but there's no LLM built in to Fastmail itself; it's a personal choice.

Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#113
post #54

FastMail has an admirable bug bounty. Have its privacy claims ever been independently audited? https://www.fastmail.com/bug-bounty/

I stopped reading their privacy policy at "Fastmail is an Australian company" - Australia is a five eyes jurisdiction. That said, I'm a happy customer of almost a decade with them, but my email correspondence is pretty boring and not politically sensitive.

Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#115

I'm a happy user of Fastmail, but I would prefer a properly EU-hosted service. (Fastmail now have data storage in the EU, but much of their infrastructure is in the US and data still passes through there - something that they're open about, but I'd prefer not to happen). The last time I looked at mailbox.org the offer wasn't nearly as good as Fastmail in terms of storage, catch-all email addresses etc, but I took ano…

They're also headquartered in Australia, which is very friendly, privacy wise, with the US isn't it?

If you're not in one of those places and you want to move from gmail you might as well pick a safer jurisdiction.

Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#117

Fastmail is the service I've paid for longer than any other, without any pauses, and with the most satisfaction of any subscription. Like the author says, email isn't exciting, it isn't a fun or interesting subscription, but it works perfectly for me and offers excellent value for what I pay. It's so gratifyingly functional and boring.

Private Email (a Namecheap product) makes me wish I didn't move that account off Gmail. I'll take a look at Fastmail.

Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#118
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bigger issue isn't a privacy one, it's a security one. For many people, if you can get access to their email box, you can account-reset your way into any other account they own. So if an authoritarian state compromises your account (because they control the servers), there goes your everything

A lot of people seem to ignore this point when it comes to Proton’s E2EE of emails at rest. It wasn’t even a year ago when the US government subpoenaed a Pennsylvania man’s entire Gmail inbox because he wrote a letter to a DHS attorney. This wouldn’t happen with Proton. It would definitely happen with Fastmail.

wow, hadn't heard about this until now. article: https://archive.is/J9Ant

correction that it says:

> The investigators who questioned Jon told him Homeland Security couldn’t obtain his emails, documents, photos or other content with an administrative subpoena, he said, but the breadth of what federal investigators did ask for shook him.

> Among their demands, which they wanted dating back to Sept. 1: the day, time and duration of all his online sessions; every associated IP and physical address; a list of each service he used; any alternate usernames and email addresses; the date he opened his account; his credit card, driver’s license and Social Security numbers.

However, what information the US government can or can't get from tech companies seems like a moving target.

Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#119

I have a blog post that I've been meaning to write about why I moved from Fastmail to Gmail. I love Fastmail as a product, but I realised it wasn't what I wanted anymore from my email. I think there's a tension between explicit and implicit organisation. If you want a really good email client, Fastmail is great, but while I did care about that at one point in my life, what I want now is really just the big box at the…

but, you're going to pay either way (assuming you have a custom domain).

Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#120
post #42

> Going and updating my accounts with a new address was easier than I was expecting Is this really true? Out of the probably many hundreds of online accounts I use I can think of very few that actually let you change the underlying email (which in almost ever case is the username) without having to create a brand new account.

Most of the sites I have accounts on did let me change my email. Looking at my password manager, about 1/5 of those that use email for login don't use my current email.

I wouldn't say it is easier than expected though, logging in, changing your email, confirming the change, and then making sure the password manager was updated was a bit of work.

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