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Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

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Re: Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

#221

Post by octobus2021 »

genem9 wrote: post #157
dusted wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I run my own mail server as well, on my own domain, own server, physically present in my home. It's increasingly becoming a hassle.. Especially sending mail from a "consumer" line is tricky, they block outgoing port 25 and no longer really provide a relay host for you to go through either.. I basically had to infiltrate my current ISP to get access to people in netops and gaslight them into configuring reverse-dns an…

Regarding nation states, this sounds like a wet dream of any govt. to be able to centrally mine your email data :facepalm. I know the NSA can probably do it but at least it’s somewhat gated to that intelligence community. Opening it up further is a recipe for disaster.

The point is that since so many services require email it's getting to the point that not having an email is a major hurdle, and therefore government must recognize it as being part of critical infrastructure and provide this service, just as they do with USPS. IRS (US govt tax authority) requires email account to register and pay taxes. So that the state government, and the county where I live as well. My kids school requires email to register kids for school and for their many educational systems; so does their pediatrician office. Bank accounts require email. The list goes on. All of these cannot and should not be anonymous and I do not have any problems with using government-provided email provider to use these.

I do want to have an option to use other emails for my streaming accounts, shopping, and all the other stuff, so that I'm not required to use the same email address everywhere. I can rent my own domain name and use the email service tied top that.

That'd work for me.

Re: Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

#222

Post by makeitdouble »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #197
makeitdouble wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Registrars are not infallible, but are a big step above in term of stability. There is the ideal view that you should be able to have your own virtual island where absolutely nothing can deprive you of ownership (including existing govs. depending on your beliefs), and I kinda root for the people who try to push it as far as possible. But pragmatically, registering your domain goes a very long way and is IMO the best…

I agree and it's what I do. But I think there is one valid counter argument. If you have to pay for something, then there is always additional potential for loss of access that doesn't exist with free services. That potential is perhaps even greater with domain registrars and all the other service providers involved in email services (registrar, domain host, email provider). Any issue with any of these services could…

Yes, this is a real issue.

Some people straight keep renewal schedules in their calendar like they do for anniversaries and tax filing deadlines. Funnily enough, registering domains at specific occasions makes it easier to remember to check the status (credit card registration etc)

At the core of it, I’m not sure it’s that different from anything you actually “own”. Someone “owning” a house would still probably get it seized if they disappeared for years without ever paying property and local taxes. Losing a house is pretty extreme, but to your point a domain name is also becoming a pretty big deal nowadays.

Re: Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

#223

Post by octobus2021 »

Timshel wrote: post #104
somat wrote: post #25

It is a bit overkill, but the closest you can get to owning your online identity is to "own" your own domain. sarcastiquotes used because you don't really own a domain you only rent it. I run my own mail server because I am a sys-admin and running a mail-server is something I do for fun. but the amount of agency you gain once you have a domain is staggering. people without a domain are pretty much second class net ci…

While less private if you have a domain instead of hosting youself you can delegate the handling to a mail provider. This way you retain the ability to seamlessly change mail provider. And you gain other benefits like infinit number of alias while requiring a low level of technical knowledge and maintenance.

That's what I do as well. In addition, all my emails are backed up in my local email client (which I back up locally to another location once in a few days) so if things go south I have a way to restore my accounts.

Re: Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

#224

Post by octobus2021 »

icare_1er wrote: post #142

I have the feeling that we are gradually shifting from email-centric to phone-centric systems. With 2FA and recovery, ultimately, your unique phone number becomes more and more THE foundation of everything online, and switching phone number is harder than switching email.

I agree. Our online identities are ultimately based on our phone numbers, and email provider can only serve as identity provider since they require your phone number.

Re: Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

#225

Post by [deleted] »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #205
kornhole wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you have difficulty receiving or sending mail? I haven't noticed such problems with my Gandi inboxes, but I know the big email providers like Google and MS do a lot of gatekeeping. If the host in France is the problem, you can use your domain at another host such as Proton.me which I do for my main account.

Yes, receiving. I just got the impression that email wasn't really something Gandi actually wanted to do rather than a box they needed to tick. And I think that may well be the case with a lot of domain registrars and their basic plans.

[deleted]

Re: Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

#226

Post by kazinator »

bongobingo1 wrote: post #181
kazinator wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bouncing on the other end has nothing to do with running your own mail domain. In e-mail, sending and receiving are decoupled. Some people use the same local mail server to do both: to relay outgoing mail and to receive. But these are independent functions, and you don't have to send mail through your server. You can configure your mail client(s) with the SMTP credentials from you mail provider (such as your ISP). Th…

Doesn't that depend on my ISP running basically an open relay, if I'm trying to mail from me@hn.com and they only provide me@isp.net? Always figured they'd just dump the request with a "i don't know you".

No because relays can be closed, and usually are. Your ISP's SMTP server requires authentication, using the credentials they gave you, and almost certainly uses TLS also.

Your me@isp.net address (or perhaps the me part of it) is used for authenticating, along with the password. It will likely be used as your envelope address when sending; the SMTP command will be MAIL from: me@isp.net, though there could be flexibility there to accept other sending envelope identities.

In any case, your mail's From: header will have the me@hn.com.

If the ISP were to filter on the From: addresses after receiving the content of the e-mail, you'd have to negotiate something with them.

Re: Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

#228

Post by hjupadhyay »

In order to have an email with my own domain I need to own (rent technically) a domain.

Registering a domain requires an existing email. Which is obviously going to be from a third party / consumer email provider whose domain I don’t have control over.

Kind if circular reference situation!

Re: Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

#229

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

demopathos wrote: post #69
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #57

> people should stop and think carefully when choosing the @example.com part of their email address. It’s a decision you’re probably set to live with for life Really? I’ve had dozens of email addresses over decades. I have a few favorites but even those have changed over time. I think your is hyperbole.

Then you fall outside the probably. The overwhelming majority of people have a single address their entire life

I guess those people only have one job their whole lives, too, and never lived before Gmail became popular.

Re: Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)

#230

Post by justinlloyd »

dusted wrote: post #79
somat wrote: post #25

It is a bit overkill, but the closest you can get to owning your online identity is to "own" your own domain. sarcastiquotes used because you don't really own a domain you only rent it. I run my own mail server because I am a sys-admin and running a mail-server is something I do for fun. but the amount of agency you gain once you have a domain is staggering. people without a domain are pretty much second class net ci…

I run my own mail server as well, on my own domain, own server, physically present in my home. It's increasingly becoming a hassle.. Especially sending mail from a "consumer" line is tricky, they block outgoing port 25 and no longer really provide a relay host for you to go through either.. I basically had to infiltrate my current ISP to get access to people in netops and gaslight them into configuring reverse-dns an…

And I _too_ run my own email server on my own domain. Though it resides on a dedicated server that I own in a data center somewhere in the Mid-West. The web mail cient it has is kind of crap though. I run a secondary "mail server" in my home, with a better webmail client, and is also configured with better spam protection and syncs with my android phone and outlook on my laptop, and that local email server that is configured to retrieve email from the data center server, along with retrieving email from gmail and a few other old email systems that I still have access too. Controlling my own email server, and my online identity that goes with it, is far better than entrusting it to someone like Google (who got about one step away from cancelling my Google account when they lost a phone I returned for repair, but that's a different story).

Interestingly, running my own server in a data center lets me run a permanent, private VPN from my home network to the data center, effectively hiding me away from any monitoring from my cable provider, using the DNS I want to make use of, blocking traffic I don't want leaking out or coming in. I have a smaller, less capable server in the UK also running a permanent, private VPN. Depending on which WiFi SSID I connect to within my home, determines if I appear as being in the US or the UK, which gives me access to different streaming services, different streaming content, different website experiences, etc.

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