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Google is 'gradually rolling out' option to change your gmail.com address

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11–20 of 241 posts

Re: Google is 'gradually rolling out' option to change your gmail.com address

#11

Boss move that I learned under great difficulty: a new temporary gmail alias for every jobsearch.

Stay tuned I have a pretty cool project I plan on launching very soon. It takes the email alias to the next level, using them as meta tags to actually allow users to trace the source of shady data exchanges. I'm working on the guide and I'm hoping to actually start a community effort here to hold companies accountable for responsible use of PII

Re: Google is 'gradually rolling out' option to change your gmail.com address

#12
post #7

I wish they'd let me recover my original -- I lost my TOTP generator, and the codes I'd written down in a paper notebook were rejected. I even hunted down the electronic copy in case there was a transcription error -- seemed like some failure in their systems was causing me to lose access despite having followed proper procedures. Lost a decade and a half of correspondence dating back to my teenage years. I had impor…

I still think about my lost address that I obtained when Gmail was invite only. My family still occasionally CCs it and it drives me nuts, I would pay money to at least have it shutdown so they don’t think I received an email. I had email forwarding to another address when stolen and immediately after it was stolen it had the weirdest messages, I tried multiple ways reaching out to google and it still bugs me I was unsuccessful. I’d love the their of my account to at least have it shutdown

Re: Google is 'gradually rolling out' option to change your gmail.com address

#14

Boss move that I learned under great difficulty: a new temporary gmail alias for every jobsearch.

Stay tuned I have a pretty cool project I plan on launching very soon. It takes the email alias to the next level, using them as meta tags to actually allow users to trace the source of shady data exchanges. I'm working on the guide and I'm hoping to actually start a community effort here to hold companies accountable for responsible use of PII

I'm interested. How does it differ from using:

name+service@gmail.com or service@myowndomain.com

...to figure out where the spam originated?

Re: Google is 'gradually rolling out' option to change your gmail.com address

#15
post #2

This is so useful. a Gmail account is so much more than just an email account at this point. my first gmail account was made when anonymity and cool email was more of trend than your actual name - so i based upon my favorite book in 2006. 20 years later the account is tied to my oft used primary google voice number so lingers even with obscure and hard to spell email. i could gave moved my google voice number, but it…

in my experience, in/out porting with google is super quick and works great. It costs $20.00 IIRC. I port my primary phone number around to avoid unlawful surveillance, handy tool in the bag.

Re: Google is 'gradually rolling out' option to change your gmail.com address

#16
post #7

I wish they'd let me recover my original -- I lost my TOTP generator, and the codes I'd written down in a paper notebook were rejected. I even hunted down the electronic copy in case there was a transcription error -- seemed like some failure in their systems was causing me to lose access despite having followed proper procedures. Lost a decade and a half of correspondence dating back to my teenage years. I had impor…

Yikes. This post is an unsettling reminder that gmail is a single point of failure in my personal and financial security.

Email services in general. My worst nightmare is my email provider (which isn't Google) going dark and losing access to everything.

Re: Google is 'gradually rolling out' option to change your gmail.com address

#17
post #12
post #7

I wish they'd let me recover my original -- I lost my TOTP generator, and the codes I'd written down in a paper notebook were rejected. I even hunted down the electronic copy in case there was a transcription error -- seemed like some failure in their systems was causing me to lose access despite having followed proper procedures. Lost a decade and a half of correspondence dating back to my teenage years. I had impor…

I still think about my lost address that I obtained when Gmail was invite only. My family still occasionally CCs it and it drives me nuts, I would pay money to at least have it shutdown so they don’t think I received an email. I had email forwarding to another address when stolen and immediately after it was stolen it had the weirdest messages, I tried multiple ways reaching out to google and it still bugs me I was u…

I got mine when it was invite only too, I had it a very long time.

I use protonmail now -- I think the "free" model enables providers to shrug and go "hey you don't pay us" (if there is support at all -- I've never been able to speak to a human about this issue)

Re: Google is 'gradually rolling out' option to change your gmail.com address

#18
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yikes. This post is an unsettling reminder that gmail is a single point of failure in my personal and financial security.

Email services in general. My worst nightmare is my email provider (which isn't Google) going dark and losing access to everything.

If you use a password manager like Keepass, you should still be able to log into your other accounts if you lost access and at least with financial institutions you can call, ask that no changes be made with without coming into the branch and showing ID.

Re: Google is 'gradually rolling out' option to change your gmail.com address

#19
post #7

I wish they'd let me recover my original -- I lost my TOTP generator, and the codes I'd written down in a paper notebook were rejected. I even hunted down the electronic copy in case there was a transcription error -- seemed like some failure in their systems was causing me to lose access despite having followed proper procedures. Lost a decade and a half of correspondence dating back to my teenage years. I had impor…

> I will never use their services again, I was really digusted by this failure

Isn’t this inherent to not choosing an (EDIT: external) account-recovery method?

The flip side to allowing account recovery at Google’s discretion is lessened security for everyone. (Obviously not black and white. And I agree Google should have flexibility for old accounts. But it’s an odd thing to reject a major provider over.)

Re: Google is 'gradually rolling out' option to change your gmail.com address

#20
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yikes. This post is an unsettling reminder that gmail is a single point of failure in my personal and financial security.

Email services in general. My worst nightmare is my email provider (which isn't Google) going dark and losing access to everything.

You can use a custom domain with most providers, so when they go dark you can at least migrate to another one.
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