3 ms·

Email services in general. My worst nightmare is my email provider (which isn't Google) going dark and losing access to everything.

• firefax 10mo ago
  If you use a password manager like Keepass, you should still be able to log into your other accounts if you lost access and at least with financial institutions you can call, ask that no changes be made with without coming into the branch and showing ID.
  • cedws 10mo ago
    Yes, but many companies will also drag their feet, refuse for "security reasons", or you'll just never be able to reach them in the first place because their only support is an AI concierge that tells you the same thing over and over. As an example Anthropic and OpenAI don't let you change your email address.
  • fph 10mo ago
    If you use a password manager like Keepass, you can put your TOTP into it as well. With both a password and a keyfile it's still two factors, technically.
• saint_yossarian 10mo ago
  You can use a custom domain with most providers, so when they go dark you can at least migrate to another one.
  • 3eb7988a1663 10mo ago
    That is moving the point of failure to the domain registrar. Which is probably less likely, but you are always relying on someone.
    • dunk010 10mo ago
      I think that the point here is that your domain registrar will pick up the phone if there is a problem, where Google clearly will not.
    • UltraSane 10mo ago
      I use AWS to register the domain and AWS supports up to 8 different MFA factors. I have totp and 4 different passkeys registered
  • cedws 10mo ago
    Two things about fronting with your own domain: 1. You have to own that domain forever, until or at least until you're 100% confident that an email intended for you will never be sent to that domain ever again. Even then, there are security risks with giving up the domain. 2. You give up some privacy. You can use mailbox aliases but it doesn't really matter if all the mailboxes are tied to a domain registered to your name and address.
    • fragmede 10mo ago
      Whois privacy is basically standard these days, no?
      • NewJazz 10mo ago
        Yes but all of your aliases would be under the same domain so one could surmise that the same person uses the domain.
        • cromka 10mo ago
          You can usually setup several domains. Some domains are very cheap to register, so you can register some inconspicuous, universal, email provider-sounding domain and add aliases at will.
      • fc417fc802 10mo ago
        Doesn't completely solve the problem. You now have to pay per (unaffiliated) alias since each requires an independent domain. You also become extremely vulnerable to data breaches because rather than learning that foo@provider is john.doe@provider with IP xxx you instead learn that foo@domain is John Doe, phone number, street address, credit card, etc. This issue goes far beyond email alone. The ICANN domain system effectively rents a string out to you on a temporarily basis and mandates that an Impressum be attached to it. It's a deeply flawed scheme when viewed from the context of both historical hacker culture as well as the fundamental values of a free and open society.
    • dangus 10mo ago
• tcfhgj 10mo ago
  Worst case you need to self host
  • Hemospectrum 10mo ago
    Great when it works. Too many senders will only deliver to widely used hosts, and silently fail for anything outside their tiny allowlist. Note that I'm not even talking about trying to send email FROM a self-hosted account, but trying to get someone else to send email TO such an account.
• ninalanyon 10mo ago
  Why don't you keep a copy of your email offline?