5 ms·

I'm sure it's not a popular view here, but why would you want to? I moved mail, etc. to Google; gmail is by far the nicest mail client I've ever used. I use it

by NKCSS 10y ago

I'm sure it's not a popular view here, but why would you want to? I moved mail, etc. to Google; gmail is by far the nicest mail client I've ever used. I use it for my business and private e-mails, I move other businesses to Google because it's just so convenient. Why would you want to do all that yourself for €4 a month? I really don't think anyone at Google would want to read my e-mails but even if someone would, do I really care? I'm all for a bit of privacy, but I've seen no evidence of data abuse at these large mail providers.

thalev 10y ago
It's not for the money, I can think of more effective ways I can spend my time to save money. My reason is that I don't like the feeling of having these very personal conversations being stored on the harddisks of google. I might trust google right now with my email but when I no longer do they will still have those files and there will be nothing I can do to completely make sure they delete them.
- yrro 10y ago
  The odds are that the other correspondent in your personal conversations is storing all their messages on Google's hard disks.
  - thalev 10y ago
    fair enough, but I'd rather not be one that is responsible for that
  - nathanb 10y ago
    This is an excellent point. Your communication is only as secure as the weakest endpoint (in the same vein, perhaps your correspondents might be of the opposing viewpoint and might feel weird about their personal mails being stored by someone who's rolling his own IT and security).
- Ao7bei3s 10y ago
  Also, I don't want to store personal data on servers of a US company.
- danieldk 10y ago
  https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/google-has-most-of-my-email-because-it-has-all-of-yours https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/google-has-most-of-my-email-be...
  - etiam 10y ago
    And what do you want to say with that?
    - danieldk 10y ago
      Even if you don't want to store your e-mail on Google's servers, a substantial part will live there anyway since you are likely to communicate with people that use consumer Google Mail or Google Apps for Domains.
- rakoo 10y ago
  So you need to encrypt your communications, getting off Google won't change anything. Use GMail as a dumb transport pipe !
_9MOTHER9HORSE 10y ago
Add to that the fact a huge amount of email is/was transferred without encryption, and you would be foolish to assume any of your email is private.
- kardos 10y ago
  A valid point.... although that situation is in flux. If Google's data is any proxy for the rest of the world, the fraction of encrypted-in-transit email is getting pretty high [1], Google reports 84/75% out/inbound. [1] https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/saferemail/ https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/saferemail/
dingaling 10y ago
> but why would you want to? For me, philosophical reasons. I want to fight-back against the centralisation of Internet services. It's the same reason I run my own blog, host photos on my own server, pay slightly more for an unfiltered Internet connection and so on. I can't 'win' on my own but its depressing that so many people are happy to jump on the centralisation because it's easy and convenient right now. And what will happen in 10 years when you only have a choice of MegaCorp-1 or MegaCorp-2 handling all your online services, slicing and selling your personal data and bombarding you to consume more, because anyone running their own servers is a "digital terrorist"? Too late then.
- Freak_NL 10y ago
  > I want to fight-back against the centralisation of Internet services. My sentiments exactly. Right now email is something anyone can participate in as long as you are using software that follows the (open) standards. It is at its core an inclusive technology, despite the (disheartening) issues mentioned in this thread about the pitfalls and hazards of getting your own mail-server going. It would be a shame if we were to lose this. On the other side of the spectrum we have the dominant instant messaging platforms, where you can only participate if you run their proprietary software and identify yourself with your pre-approved identifier (your phone number in most cases). Or the centralized social media platforms that censor according to their interpretation of what is permissible. I understand that leaving all complexity and the burden of grokking something as abstract as networked software is something most people are glad to leave in the hands of Apple, or Microsoft, or Google; but it saddens me that those of us who do understand how this stuff works (at least in a broad sense) appear so willing to just accept the death of a free and open internet for a bit of convenience.

by NKCSS 10y ago

thalev 10y ago

It's not for the money, I can think of more effective ways I can spend my time to save money. My reason is that I don't like the feeling of having these very personal conversations being stored on the harddisks of google. I might trust google right now with my email but when I no longer do they will still have those files and there will be nothing I can do to completely make sure they delete them.

yrro 10y ago
The odds are that the other correspondent in your personal conversations is storing all their messages on Google's hard disks.
- thalev 10y ago
  fair enough, but I'd rather not be one that is responsible for that
- nathanb 10y ago
  This is an excellent point. Your communication is only as secure as the weakest endpoint (in the same vein, perhaps your correspondents might be of the opposing viewpoint and might feel weird about their personal mails being stored by someone who's rolling his own IT and security).
Ao7bei3s 10y ago
Also, I don't want to store personal data on servers of a US company.
danieldk 10y ago
https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/google-has-most-of-my-email-because-it-has-all-of-yours https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/google-has-most-of-my-email-be...
- etiam 10y ago
  And what do you want to say with that?
  - danieldk 10y ago
    Even if you don't want to store your e-mail on Google's servers, a substantial part will live there anyway since you are likely to communicate with people that use consumer Google Mail or Google Apps for Domains.
rakoo 10y ago
So you need to encrypt your communications, getting off Google won't change anything. Use GMail as a dumb transport pipe !

_9MOTHER9HORSE 10y ago

Add to that the fact a huge amount of email is/was transferred without encryption, and you would be foolish to assume any of your email is private.

kardos 10y ago
A valid point.... although that situation is in flux. If Google's data is any proxy for the rest of the world, the fraction of encrypted-in-transit email is getting pretty high [1], Google reports 84/75% out/inbound. [1] https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/saferemail/ https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/saferemail/

dingaling 10y ago

> but why would you want to? For me, philosophical reasons. I want to fight-back against the centralisation of Internet services. It's the same reason I run my own blog, host photos on my own server, pay slightly more for an unfiltered Internet connection and so on. I can't 'win' on my own but its depressing that so many people are happy to jump on the centralisation because it's easy and convenient right now. And what will happen in 10 years when you only have a choice of MegaCorp-1 or MegaCorp-2 handling all your online services, slicing and selling your personal data and bombarding you to consume more, because anyone running their own servers is a "digital terrorist"? Too late then.

Freak_NL 10y ago
> I want to fight-back against the centralisation of Internet services. My sentiments exactly. Right now email is something anyone can participate in as long as you are using software that follows the (open) standards. It is at its core an inclusive technology, despite the (disheartening) issues mentioned in this thread about the pitfalls and hazards of getting your own mail-server going. It would be a shame if we were to lose this. On the other side of the spectrum we have the dominant instant messaging platforms, where you can only participate if you run their proprietary software and identify yourself with your pre-approved identifier (your phone number in most cases). Or the centralized social media platforms that censor according to their interpretation of what is permissible. I understand that leaving all complexity and the burden of grokking something as abstract as networked software is something most people are glad to leave in the hands of Apple, or Microsoft, or Google; but it saddens me that those of us who do understand how this stuff works (at least in a broad sense) appear so willing to just accept the death of a free and open internet for a bit of convenience.