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And losing access to your primary email tends to have a drastic ripple-effect since so many websites use it as the primary means of handling password resets, pa

And losing access to your primary email tends to have a drastic ripple-effect since so many websites use it as the primary means of handling password resets, password recovery, and such. Hearing about Google similarly shutting down people's Google accounts for iffy reasons is what got me to stop using gmail as a primary personal email address and start using my own domain (with hosting at fastmail for now, but easy enough to change this should I ever need to).

miki123211 3y ago
Self-hosting your email doesn't really change anything, though. You've taken away control from Google but gave it to ICAN, the administrator of your TLD, your domain registrar, and to some extend your DNS and email providers. The domain registrar is the most likely to intervene directly and take your domain away for no good reason, but ICAN and your TLD owner can set policies that affect you (like suddenly raising prices or making you ineligible to own the domain unless you demonstrate proof of citizenship of a certain country.) All of the above have happened before. Sure, right now Google does such things a lot more often than registrars do, but this might change at any moment, so such a solution is very far from a silver bullet. Even a hypothetical blockchain-based DNS solution wouldn't solve the problem completely, it would place responsibility solely in your own hands, but failing to secure your private keys appropriately would have similar (if not worse) consequences.
- georgemcbay 3y ago
  Well yeah nothing in life is guaranteed. > Sure, right now Google does such things a lot more often than registrars do This is the only factor that matters in why I moved away from gmail to my own domain. It isn't about completely eliminating the risks (which is impossible), rather just minimizing them as much as I practically can.
- simfree 3y ago
  Self-hosting removed 1 large organization that has a history of anti-user business practices from your chain of trust. The other threats you list are still there even if you use a hosted email platform.

miki123211 3y ago

Self-hosting your email doesn't really change anything, though. You've taken away control from Google but gave it to ICAN, the administrator of your TLD, your domain registrar, and to some extend your DNS and email providers. The domain registrar is the most likely to intervene directly and take your domain away for no good reason, but ICAN and your TLD owner can set policies that affect you (like suddenly raising prices or making you ineligible to own the domain unless you demonstrate proof of citizenship of a certain country.) All of the above have happened before. Sure, right now Google does such things a lot more often than registrars do, but this might change at any moment, so such a solution is very far from a silver bullet. Even a hypothetical blockchain-based DNS solution wouldn't solve the problem completely, it would place responsibility solely in your own hands, but failing to secure your private keys appropriately would have similar (if not worse) consequences.

georgemcbay 3y ago
Well yeah nothing in life is guaranteed. > Sure, right now Google does such things a lot more often than registrars do This is the only factor that matters in why I moved away from gmail to my own domain. It isn't about completely eliminating the risks (which is impossible), rather just minimizing them as much as I practically can.
simfree 3y ago
Self-hosting removed 1 large organization that has a history of anti-user business practices from your chain of trust. The other threats you list are still there even if you use a hosted email platform.