4 ms·

The linked support forum article is very short on detail. But assuming you've been locked out of your Gmail account and [as quoted in the linked post "...have y

The linked support forum article is very short on detail. But assuming you've been locked out of your Gmail account and [as quoted in the linked post "...have years of important emails attached to [the] account...": 1: Don't depend on Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter etc. not to suddenly lock you out of your account for no apparent reason. 2: Don't expect to be able to get through to anyone at Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter etc. who cares about your problem, if it does happen. 3: If you do insist on using a service like Gmail, don't keep all your eggs in the webmail basket. Access your account via an email client with IMAP. Then, if you get locked out, you'll at least still have your email archives and can move on from there. It never ceases to amaze me the people who trust monolithic unaccountable 3rd parties with their "important" data and then compound the issue by not having a local copy to fall back on.

ianai 6y ago
What are the visbe alternatives?
- Jaruzel 6y ago
  Gmail also has the ability to forward all (or some) emails to another email address. Set up a secondary account somewhere (non-gmail), and have a live backup of your gmail for when the worst happens.
  - derwiki 6y ago
    Amazing tip! Well worth the two minute setup to forward to my new Protonmail address
    - Normille 6y ago
      I just set up a couple of Protonmail addresses myself yesterday, as I was getting really pissed off with how unreliable Yandex Mail had become. Unfortunately I didn't find out til after I'd spent a good hour logging into lots of websites and updating my email address to my shiny new Protonmail ones, that I can't connect to a free tier Protonmail account with IMAP and Thunderbird. D'oh! Protonmail looks like a good choice, if you only have one or two email addresses and don't mind being restricted to accessing it via webmail. But I've got half a dozen or more across various services, as well as on my own domains and I want to continue to be able to access them all from within one app [ie. Thunderbird]. The whole different app for every web service thing gets tired very quickly. Also, as per the original thread starter, if you only access your Protonmail account via webmail this does still leave you at the mercy of another company which may or may not decide to lock you out. Can anyone recommend any free alternatives to Gmail / Yandex Mail [preferably privacy respecting] that will actually integrate with an IMAP client?
      - derwiki 6y ago
        Is free a hard requirement?
        Normille 6y ago
        Pretty much. I already use my own domain for my main personal and business email addresses and I've also set up email addresses for several family members on that domain. So, if I moved to a paid plan, I'd not just be paying for one email address but about 8 or 9 --either that or face the unpleasant task of explaining to family members that they now needed to pay to continue using the email addresses they've had for years. I also have a few other domains that only I have email addresses on and I run the email for those through Gmail and Yandex Mail's servers. I've also got a few other email addresses @gmail.com and @yandex.com which I use for less important stuff like signing up for forums / websites and the like. So, I wouldn't want to be replacing them with a paid plan either --given they're not used for anything important. So in essence, "free" [and reliable] is more important than "secure". I'm not majorly unhappy with my current setup, but I'm always open for giving rival services a try out, just to chip away at the stranglehold the big boys have on the market.
- the_duke 6y ago
  The most important part is using your own domain so you can always migrate between hosters and have control over your digital identity. If you really want to stick with Gmail, Google Apps is cheap for one user, but goto alternatives are Fastmail and Protonmail.
- input_sh 6y ago
  With email you absolutely want an address with a domain that you own. You can use it with pretty much any email hosting provider, and in case you get banned, you can point your DNS to another provider and continue with your day. If Google banned my account, my phone would probably be useless, but other than that I wouldn't have any negative consequences. If Facebook banned my account, I wouldn't care at all (I spend less than 5 min per month on there). If Amazon banned my account, same thing (stripped DRM from all ebooks I've purchased there). Microsoft, same (losing my GitHub account would be a bummer, but wouldn't impact my work which is on GitLab). And as far as Apple goes, the only product of theirs I've ever owned was a USB Type C cable. Of course, getting to that point wasn't easy and required years of conscious effort to make my data independent: https://input.sh/healthy-relationship-with-google/ https://input.sh/healthy-relationship-with-google/
geertj 6y ago
Do you have data or anecdotes that this is a consistent issue across the tech companies you mentioned? As an AWS employee speaking for myself, I find it inconceivable that in our customer obsessed culture we’d lock out accounts without a clear reason or the ability to talk to a human.
- rad_gruchalski 6y ago
  Happened to me with Amazon retail business account in Germany.
- Normille 6y ago
  I've had it happen to me with four Twitter accounts at once. All locked overnight in January with no explanation or response to emails from their support dept[0]. It took 6 months and a formal GDPR complaint to the Irish Data Protection Commissioner before Twitter finally unlocked the accounts and admitted they'd made a mistake[1]: >Hello, >We’re writing to let you know that we’ve unsuspended your >accounts. We’re sorry for the inconvenience and hope to see you >back on Twitter soon. >A little background: we have systems that find and remove >multiple automated spam accounts in bulk, and yours was flagged >as spam by mistake. Please note that it may take an hour or so >for your follower and following numbers to return to normal So yes. It does happen and, when it does, you have little to no chance of actually getting hold of a real human being to talk to, or who can give you any explanation as to why it occurred. Thankfully in my case, it was just some shitty Twitter accounts and I'm actually quite glad it happened now as it gave me the impetus excise another pointless moronic social network from my online life. [0] https://stiobhart.net/2020-03-18-twittergdpr/ https://stiobhart.net/2020-03-18-twittergdpr/ [1] https://stiobhart.net/2020-06-14-twatter-revisited/ https://stiobhart.net/2020-06-14-twatter-revisited/
- derekp7 6y ago
  I signed on to Amazon's Mechanical Turk as a worker just to see what it was all about (and to evaluate what the workflows were, so I could recommend it to others). I think I ended up doing a couple bucks worth of work, and applied it to my regular Amazon account. Well, recently I went back on it (after a few years of not using it, although I use my regular Amazon and AWS account all the time). And it said I'm not allowed to take on work, because my payment method has been suspended for a policy violation. Which policy? How do I get it un-suspended? Did someone else compromise it to use it illicitly? Nothing on the page gives me any clue of how/who/what to contact.
themantra514 6y ago
This: https://gurjeet.singh.im/blog/never-use-google-to-sign-in https://gurjeet.singh.im/blog/never-use-google-to-sign-in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25091420 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25091420
- Normille 6y ago
  Ironically I've just resorted to signing in with Google on my eBay account as, for the past couple of months, whenever I sign in with my email address, I end up in a Groundhog Day hell of endless login screens and reCaptchas. I'm not comfortable at all with the thought of Google harvesting data about everything I search for, buy, or sell on eBay. But, frankly, being able to avoid the killing rage that descends on me every time I see one of those fucking reCaptchas is worth the loss in privacy!

ianai 6y ago

What are the visbe alternatives?

Jaruzel 6y ago
Gmail also has the ability to forward all (or some) emails to another email address. Set up a secondary account somewhere (non-gmail), and have a live backup of your gmail for when the worst happens.
- derwiki 6y ago
  Amazing tip! Well worth the two minute setup to forward to my new Protonmail address
  - Normille 6y ago
    I just set up a couple of Protonmail addresses myself yesterday, as I was getting really pissed off with how unreliable Yandex Mail had become. Unfortunately I didn't find out til after I'd spent a good hour logging into lots of websites and updating my email address to my shiny new Protonmail ones, that I can't connect to a free tier Protonmail account with IMAP and Thunderbird. D'oh! Protonmail looks like a good choice, if you only have one or two email addresses and don't mind being restricted to accessing it via webmail. But I've got half a dozen or more across various services, as well as on my own domains and I want to continue to be able to access them all from within one app [ie. Thunderbird]. The whole different app for every web service thing gets tired very quickly. Also, as per the original thread starter, if you only access your Protonmail account via webmail this does still leave you at the mercy of another company which may or may not decide to lock you out. Can anyone recommend any free alternatives to Gmail / Yandex Mail [preferably privacy respecting] that will actually integrate with an IMAP client?
    - derwiki 6y ago
      Is free a hard requirement?
      - Normille 6y ago
        Pretty much. I already use my own domain for my main personal and business email addresses and I've also set up email addresses for several family members on that domain. So, if I moved to a paid plan, I'd not just be paying for one email address but about 8 or 9 --either that or face the unpleasant task of explaining to family members that they now needed to pay to continue using the email addresses they've had for years. I also have a few other domains that only I have email addresses on and I run the email for those through Gmail and Yandex Mail's servers. I've also got a few other email addresses @gmail.com and @yandex.com which I use for less important stuff like signing up for forums / websites and the like. So, I wouldn't want to be replacing them with a paid plan either --given they're not used for anything important. So in essence, "free" [and reliable] is more important than "secure". I'm not majorly unhappy with my current setup, but I'm always open for giving rival services a try out, just to chip away at the stranglehold the big boys have on the market.
the_duke 6y ago
The most important part is using your own domain so you can always migrate between hosters and have control over your digital identity. If you really want to stick with Gmail, Google Apps is cheap for one user, but goto alternatives are Fastmail and Protonmail.
input_sh 6y ago
With email you absolutely want an address with a domain that you own. You can use it with pretty much any email hosting provider, and in case you get banned, you can point your DNS to another provider and continue with your day. If Google banned my account, my phone would probably be useless, but other than that I wouldn't have any negative consequences. If Facebook banned my account, I wouldn't care at all (I spend less than 5 min per month on there). If Amazon banned my account, same thing (stripped DRM from all ebooks I've purchased there). Microsoft, same (losing my GitHub account would be a bummer, but wouldn't impact my work which is on GitLab). And as far as Apple goes, the only product of theirs I've ever owned was a USB Type C cable. Of course, getting to that point wasn't easy and required years of conscious effort to make my data independent: https://input.sh/healthy-relationship-with-google/ https://input.sh/healthy-relationship-with-google/

geertj 6y ago

Do you have data or anecdotes that this is a consistent issue across the tech companies you mentioned? As an AWS employee speaking for myself, I find it inconceivable that in our customer obsessed culture we’d lock out accounts without a clear reason or the ability to talk to a human.

rad_gruchalski 6y ago
Happened to me with Amazon retail business account in Germany.
Normille 6y ago
I've had it happen to me with four Twitter accounts at once. All locked overnight in January with no explanation or response to emails from their support dept[0]. It took 6 months and a formal GDPR complaint to the Irish Data Protection Commissioner before Twitter finally unlocked the accounts and admitted they'd made a mistake[1]: >Hello, >We’re writing to let you know that we’ve unsuspended your >accounts. We’re sorry for the inconvenience and hope to see you >back on Twitter soon. >A little background: we have systems that find and remove >multiple automated spam accounts in bulk, and yours was flagged >as spam by mistake. Please note that it may take an hour or so >for your follower and following numbers to return to normal So yes. It does happen and, when it does, you have little to no chance of actually getting hold of a real human being to talk to, or who can give you any explanation as to why it occurred. Thankfully in my case, it was just some shitty Twitter accounts and I'm actually quite glad it happened now as it gave me the impetus excise another pointless moronic social network from my online life. [0] https://stiobhart.net/2020-03-18-twittergdpr/ https://stiobhart.net/2020-03-18-twittergdpr/ [1] https://stiobhart.net/2020-06-14-twatter-revisited/ https://stiobhart.net/2020-06-14-twatter-revisited/
derekp7 6y ago
I signed on to Amazon's Mechanical Turk as a worker just to see what it was all about (and to evaluate what the workflows were, so I could recommend it to others). I think I ended up doing a couple bucks worth of work, and applied it to my regular Amazon account. Well, recently I went back on it (after a few years of not using it, although I use my regular Amazon and AWS account all the time). And it said I'm not allowed to take on work, because my payment method has been suspended for a policy violation. Which policy? How do I get it un-suspended? Did someone else compromise it to use it illicitly? Nothing on the page gives me any clue of how/who/what to contact.

themantra514 6y ago

This: https://gurjeet.singh.im/blog/never-use-google-to-sign-in https://gurjeet.singh.im/blog/never-use-google-to-sign-in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25091420 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25091420

Normille 6y ago
Ironically I've just resorted to signing in with Google on my eBay account as, for the past couple of months, whenever I sign in with my email address, I end up in a Groundhog Day hell of endless login screens and reCaptchas. I'm not comfortable at all with the thought of Google harvesting data about everything I search for, buy, or sell on eBay. But, frankly, being able to avoid the killing rage that descends on me every time I see one of those fucking reCaptchas is worth the loss in privacy!