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I wonder how much I would lose if my Gmail was deleted... Everything I have is behind that address. What would be my best bet to move to if I'm too much of a b

I wonder how much I would lose if my Gmail was deleted... Everything I have is behind that address. What would be my best bet to move to if I'm too much of a bad to host my own email?

curiousgal 9y ago
Hosting your own email is a huge hassle, and getting pass spam filters is hard. Many website allow adding alternative email addresses so maybe one should use different providers.
jameskegel 9y ago
Do you need email?
- Clubber 9y ago
  It sure beats giving out your cell phone number on the internet for people to contact you.
torbjorn 9y ago
using google's "takeout" feature you can back up all of your gmail/google acct data.
- gaius 9y ago
  If they haven't already blocked you...
sbov 9y ago
It's easier to just have your own domain and host your domain's email with a provider, such as google/fastmail/etc. This will let you change hosts if you feel the need to. The hardest part is switching all your accounts to use your new domain.
mirimir 9y ago
I've had good experience with Riseup and VFEmail. Even cock.li ;) I've always used separate accounts for personal, work, etc. For stuff that really matters, it's best to own your own domain. That way, if you lose an account, you can just reroute mail to the new account.
- newscracker 9y ago
  Services like Riseup constantly ask users not to store much information on the servers in order to contain the costs. The quotas are usually much smaller in such services. P.S.: I do have a Riseup email account that I barely use for some specific areas of activism.
SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
One idea: Use Google email but from a custom domain -- it doesn't back-up your email, but you can update the DNS to a new provider if you get locked out of Google's services. This means you can still recover accounts, use the same email, etc after a brief disruption, instead of totally hosed. It's not a total solution, but it does mitigate some problems, which makes Google's policies easier to swallow. (If you do separate email back-ups, then you'll only lose the emails since the last back-up.) I'm in the process of switching to that set-up (partly because of these antics; partly because of other concerns).
- dingdingdang 9y ago
  Google Apps/whatever-its-currently-called used to be free for private use - this is no longer the case?
  - newscracker 9y ago
    The free tier was removed a long time ago. Those who did register before that change had their free plans grandfathered and made available for free later too. I'm still using my free GSuite account with Gmail for a couple of my domains. My usage is very low, and I'm not sure if Google is mining data from free GSuite accounts. My understanding is that it does not.
brightball 9y ago
This link from the other thread has a lot of solutions for different options. The Switzerland based options seem pretty promising. https://www.privacytools.io/ https://www.privacytools.io/
jszymborski 9y ago
Email providers that I would trust: * Fastmail.com -- good reputation and track record at reasonable prices * mailbox.org -- long track record, privacy-oriented, German-based. Some people describe the mail UI as aging (it's OX suite), but I like it just fine. * Protonmail.com -- UX & privacy focused email with fancy in-browser encryption. Protonmail-to-protonmail emails are E2E (OpenPGPjs). No IMAP, and in-browser (read: scary) encryption, albeit open-source. Based in Switzerland, although that means a lot less than they make it out to, re: privacy. * tutanota.com -- V. similar to Protonmail. Based in Germany and a cheaper than protonmail. Uses a custom-implemented encryption protocol vaguely and unreassuringly described as a "..standardized, hybrid method.." comprised of RSA and AES [0]. [0] https://tutanota.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/470732-what-encryption-algorithms-does-tutanota-use https://tutanota.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/470732... EDIT: Made some corrections re: protonmail & tutanota encryption, pointed out by bartbutler.
- bartbutler 9y ago
  ProtonMail is OpenPGP under the hood, not 'custom' encryption. Tutanota is custom.
  - jszymborski 9y ago
    My bad, will edit accordingly. The in-browser, over-the-wire javascript crypto implementation still makes me nervous. I'd love to hear some compelling evidence to the contrary, but as I understand most of what has been stated before about in-browser crypto hasn't changed much [0]. [0] https://tonyarcieri.com/whats-wrong-with-webcrypto https://tonyarcieri.com/whats-wrong-with-webcrypto
    - bartbutler 9y ago
      It's going to be less secure than native clients, for sure. ProtonMail has native mobile clients though, and will have a desktop one (IMAP/SMTP bridge) soon, which should alleviate webmail concerns.
      - 9y ago
kelnos 9y ago
I do two things: 1) I use an address on my own domain (hosted on Google Apps) as my primary email address. If Google pulls the plug on me I can point my MX records elsewhere, and won't have to worry about changing my email at countless places. 2) I use offlineimap to back up the contents of my GMail account at home. If I had to, I could load that backup into a new provider's service (or my own). I still have email from the 90s and would be sad if I lost all that. That's just email, though. If my entire Google account got axed, I'd lose a bunch of docs and spreadsheets, not to mention all my contacts. And, while I do have everything on Google Photos in places other than Google, it would be a pain to gather it all together again.
- blfr 9y ago
  Of course 1) only works until your registrar decides they don't like the content of your website. But you can back up virtually all data hosted with Google through Takeout. https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout
  - kelnos 9y ago
    The domain I use for email does not have an associated website. I use it only for email & Hangouts. Regardless, we're not talking about being bulletproof here; that's impossible. There are always risks. Don't you lose access to Takeout if your account gets closed suddenly?

I wonder how much I would lose if my Gmail was deleted... Everything I have is behind that address. What would be my best bet to move to if I'm too much of a bad to host my own email?

curiousgal 9y ago

Hosting your own email is a huge hassle, and getting pass spam filters is hard. Many website allow adding alternative email addresses so maybe one should use different providers.

jameskegel 9y ago

Do you need email?

Clubber 9y ago
It sure beats giving out your cell phone number on the internet for people to contact you.

torbjorn 9y ago

using google's "takeout" feature you can back up all of your gmail/google acct data.

gaius 9y ago
If they haven't already blocked you...

sbov 9y ago

It's easier to just have your own domain and host your domain's email with a provider, such as google/fastmail/etc. This will let you change hosts if you feel the need to. The hardest part is switching all your accounts to use your new domain.

mirimir 9y ago

I've had good experience with Riseup and VFEmail. Even cock.li ;) I've always used separate accounts for personal, work, etc. For stuff that really matters, it's best to own your own domain. That way, if you lose an account, you can just reroute mail to the new account.

newscracker 9y ago
Services like Riseup constantly ask users not to store much information on the servers in order to contain the costs. The quotas are usually much smaller in such services. P.S.: I do have a Riseup email account that I barely use for some specific areas of activism.

SomeStupidPoint 9y ago

One idea: Use Google email but from a custom domain -- it doesn't back-up your email, but you can update the DNS to a new provider if you get locked out of Google's services. This means you can still recover accounts, use the same email, etc after a brief disruption, instead of totally hosed. It's not a total solution, but it does mitigate some problems, which makes Google's policies easier to swallow. (If you do separate email back-ups, then you'll only lose the emails since the last back-up.) I'm in the process of switching to that set-up (partly because of these antics; partly because of other concerns).

dingdingdang 9y ago
Google Apps/whatever-its-currently-called used to be free for private use - this is no longer the case?
- newscracker 9y ago
  The free tier was removed a long time ago. Those who did register before that change had their free plans grandfathered and made available for free later too. I'm still using my free GSuite account with Gmail for a couple of my domains. My usage is very low, and I'm not sure if Google is mining data from free GSuite accounts. My understanding is that it does not.

brightball 9y ago

This link from the other thread has a lot of solutions for different options. The Switzerland based options seem pretty promising. https://www.privacytools.io/ https://www.privacytools.io/

jszymborski 9y ago

Email providers that I would trust: * Fastmail.com -- good reputation and track record at reasonable prices * mailbox.org -- long track record, privacy-oriented, German-based. Some people describe the mail UI as aging (it's OX suite), but I like it just fine. * Protonmail.com -- UX & privacy focused email with fancy in-browser encryption. Protonmail-to-protonmail emails are E2E (OpenPGPjs). No IMAP, and in-browser (read: scary) encryption, albeit open-source. Based in Switzerland, although that means a lot less than they make it out to, re: privacy. * tutanota.com -- V. similar to Protonmail. Based in Germany and a cheaper than protonmail. Uses a custom-implemented encryption protocol vaguely and unreassuringly described as a "..standardized, hybrid method.." comprised of RSA and AES [0]. [0] https://tutanota.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/470732-what-encryption-algorithms-does-tutanota-use https://tutanota.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/470732... EDIT: Made some corrections re: protonmail & tutanota encryption, pointed out by bartbutler.

bartbutler 9y ago
ProtonMail is OpenPGP under the hood, not 'custom' encryption. Tutanota is custom.
- jszymborski 9y ago
  My bad, will edit accordingly. The in-browser, over-the-wire javascript crypto implementation still makes me nervous. I'd love to hear some compelling evidence to the contrary, but as I understand most of what has been stated before about in-browser crypto hasn't changed much [0]. [0] https://tonyarcieri.com/whats-wrong-with-webcrypto https://tonyarcieri.com/whats-wrong-with-webcrypto
  - bartbutler 9y ago
    It's going to be less secure than native clients, for sure. ProtonMail has native mobile clients though, and will have a desktop one (IMAP/SMTP bridge) soon, which should alleviate webmail concerns.
    - 9y ago

kelnos 9y ago

I do two things: 1) I use an address on my own domain (hosted on Google Apps) as my primary email address. If Google pulls the plug on me I can point my MX records elsewhere, and won't have to worry about changing my email at countless places. 2) I use offlineimap to back up the contents of my GMail account at home. If I had to, I could load that backup into a new provider's service (or my own). I still have email from the 90s and would be sad if I lost all that. That's just email, though. If my entire Google account got axed, I'd lose a bunch of docs and spreadsheets, not to mention all my contacts. And, while I do have everything on Google Photos in places other than Google, it would be a pain to gather it all together again.

blfr 9y ago
Of course 1) only works until your registrar decides they don't like the content of your website. But you can back up virtually all data hosted with Google through Takeout. https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout
- kelnos 9y ago
  The domain I use for email does not have an associated website. I use it only for email & Hangouts. Regardless, we're not talking about being bulletproof here; that's impossible. There are always risks. Don't you lose access to Takeout if your account gets closed suddenly?