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It might be instructive if you included why you are trying to avoid Gmail in your OP, so we can avoid suggesting other apps that might have the same issues. Fo
by mcantor 17y ago
It might be instructive if you included why you are trying to avoid Gmail in your OP, so we can avoid suggesting other apps that might have the same issues. For example, do you dislike it because of privacy concerns? Or because it's a web app? Etc.
- Maro 17y agoI think the Gmail UI is excellent and I love it, but I'm starting to have privacy concerns.
- oomkiller 17y agoGoogle Apps Premium, unless you're Iranian/Chinese. Then use Hushmail etc
- intranation 17y agoIs Google Apps premium guaranteed to actually protect you from the aforementioned privacy concerns? It's still on Google's servers.
- jrockway 17y agoThe government can subpoena your own server in your own house just as easily as they can subpoena Google's servers. So who are you hiding from? If it's the government, then you must use strong cryptography no matter where you host your email, and you must ensure that everyone you communicate with is as paranoid as you. (I would encrypt all my email, but nobody else I talk too will. So it doesn't work.) If it's advertisers you want to avoid, just run your own server and stop worrying so much. People have been doing it for years. (Although, I run my own mailserver and am inundated with spam. Thousands of messages a day. So you aren't really avoiding advertisements, you are just avoiding advertisements for stuff you might actually want :)
- imasr 17y agoOn you own server you decide what and for how long data will be stored. In the government wants your server you can format your hard drive if you want (or whatever you think is fit). I bet you can't do that if your mail is on google (or yahoo, msn, etc for that matters)
- jrockway 17y agoIn the government wants your server you can format your hard drive if you want. That is illegal and ineffective. Full-disk encryption provides much more safety, both legally and technically. (They could still sneak into your house and install a hardware keylogger that gets your encryption passphrase, and then seize the disks. But this is real life, not a movie.)
- johSho7w 17y agoWell, they do have hardware to seize a running server without shutting it down (by splicing into the power cables/power lines at the wall plate and introducing battery power). How secure is a running machine sitting in a forensic lab? If you're receiving mail from the net your disk is necessarily unencrypted, right? I guess you would also need some sort of dead-man trigger. Suggestions?
- kogir 17y agoYes, but if it's in your house, you at least know it happened and can try and fight it. If google hands over your data you may never know. I think in many cases they'd likely be barred from telling you even if they wanted to. Note: IANAL
- jrockway 17y agoYes, good point. And if the disks are encrypted, you will definitely know about it, because they won't be getting any data without you. (Unless the email police broke AES or the key-strengthening algorithm and haven't told anyone yet. This is unlikely, however.)
- coriander 17y agoFair enough for Iranian/Chinese users perhaps but I thought Hushmail was no longer secure - ever since they handed over user data in response to a subpoena.
- jm4 17y agoThere's nothing wrong with handing over data in response to a subpoena. They're legally required to do so. The problem is with providers who hand over data without a subpoena.
- koenigdavidmj 17y agoIt is their ability to decrypt that scares me. Most of the users were under the impression that Hushmail did not save their keys.
- jcl 17y agoNot to restate the obvious, but e-mail goes around in plaintext. Whatever Google is doing with your e-mail can also be done by your ISP (and your recipients' ISPs, and anyone between). One could make the case that hosting on Gmail has greater privacy in this respect, since if you send to any other Gmail address, the e-mail probably stays within the Google network.
- nfnaaron 17y agoBut as someone pointed out in another subthread, it doesn't matter if Google is the best secured, least spammed provider in the world (and they may well be), if they turn around and leak your contacts lists. The comments in the big long buzz thread about peoples' client lists becoming aware of each other was pretty egregious.