I think I'm done with Gmail. Maybe I'm even ready to pay for email?

[jameskga]

Hi folks,

I was thinking about email today and that maybe it's time to let go of Gmail.

What if there was a Google agent who stood by your mailbox on the sidewalk, and offered to read your mail for you, and send copies of it back to Google? I'd most certainly tell that guy where to go. Just because I can't see Google reading my email doesn't make it better that they do. Email is not so impossible to come by that I should let them make money selling my data for providing this basic internet service.

I need a good list of ethical alternatives with good privacy policies and security.

I rent space at Bluehost and GoDaddy by the month. and although I have plenty of email choices behind domains I currently own or manage, I doubt these companies' privacy policies respect the mail I send through their servers, so I might have to pay.

Anybody here pay for email? One good argument I heard for paying for email service is it rebalances privacy toward the consumer by way of a contract, possibly including privacy guarantees that must be adhered to after a user pays for this service from the company. Something legal, having to do with getting exactly what you pay for in a financial agreement.

Looking for thoughts and suggestions.

Someone on IRC recommended Posteo
https://posteo.de/en

[BigEasy]

There is one thing you must know. There is no such thing as "your email". Everything stored at someboby's servers. It is "their email". You only allowed to look.

[Moem]

Since you have privacy concerns, Protonmail or Tutanota might be your jam. I would also recommend looking at Lavabit.

[Moem]

There is one thing you must know. There is no such thing as "your email". Everything stored at someboby's servers. It is "their email". You only allowed to look.

Sure, it's nice weather today... kick in an already open door*, why don't you.

*This is a saying in my language and I think it's pretty clear what it means.

[BigEasy]

Open door is email. Knocking open door is pay for email.

[GS3]

I don't see how paying makes it any better. That's what encryption is for. Use end-to-end encryption.

OTOH, I have several email addresses and just use an email client so I never see any ads and I have no idea what info the different email services might be collecting about me but I doubt it will be useful to them. If you use web-based client then yes, they can target their ads but if all they have is an email address and no real information to link it to then...

That is what I hate people who sign up for facething, whatsapp or whatever and give access to their address book. How rude and stupid do you have to be to give out my information without my permission?

[Moem]

I don't see how paying makes it any better.

Great; let's hear your recommendations for free, ethical alternatives with good privacy policies and security.

[KBD47]

Depending upon how much email you use/get you might get by with a free Tutanota or Protonmail account. I've been trying both of those out and no issues so far. Might keep gmail as a throwaway account, especially as they have a good spam mail catcher.

[BenTrabetere]

I have been pleased with Runbox. I have used it for a couple of years - the prices are reasonable and there are several service plans. Other than scheduled maintenance, I have not experienced any service interruptions.

Its servers are located in Norway and it is GDPR compliant.

[phd21]

Hi jameskga, and everyone else,

I love the free and secure Google and Google Mail (Gmail), and their related products and services (Google Voice/Hangouts). Who else provides all these free features and services linked to your Gmail account(s)? Use good passwords and their default 2-factor authentication, and change your login passwords every now and then, perhaps monthly, or every couple months.

I do not like anyone including Google reading my email without my permission, and Google was supposed to stop that awhile ago, see links below. There are add-ons and extensions for helping with this.

Does google mail read my email - Google Search
https://www.google.com/search?source=hp ... qAzuKfEwik


- For truly secure email, you would have to use an encryption option and an email client that supports encryption like Thunderbird with Enigmail add-on (Kmail, Evolution, etc...), or perhaps using a browser add-on like the one below.

CryptoData – Add-ons for Firefox
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... src=search

CryptoData for Google Chrome:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... cadfghkjjh

CryptoData for SeaMonkey, PaleMoon, Thunderbird, Firefox ver. < 52:
https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/crypto ... sions/2.09


- You can also use an email client to retrieve your emails from a web-based email provider like Google's Gmail to automatically store them on your computer and automatically delete them from their servers (remember to empty their trash bin). This way your emails are not on their servers for very long to be read by anyone.

Hope this helps ...

[Moem]

I do not like anyone including Google reading my email without my permission, and Google was supposed to stop that awhile ago

They have certainly not stopped reading your email. But they have your permission if you're using their service.

I'm not clicking your link, by the way, because it's a Google link and I don't like companies that monitor my search behaviour. And so I refrain from using their services whenever I can.

[900i]

My vote goes to Protonmail

[phd21]

Hi Moem and everyone else,

I do not like anyone including Google reading my email without my permission, and Google was supposed to stop that awhile ago

They have certainly not stopped reading your email. But they have your permission if you're using their service. I'm not clicking your link, by the way, because it's a Google link and I don't like companies that monitor my search behaviour. And so I refrain from using their services whenever I can.

Now Moem brought up another very good point, Google and most other search engines (Microsoft's Bing, among others), do in fact monitor and use your Internet search activities, but anyone can search for that same information using anonymous and safe search engines from some search websites. I normally have "Startpage" as my default search engine now and anyone can change their browsers default search engines. You can also use browser options for "Private Windows".

StartPage Search Engine - secure and anonymous click bottom to see more about them
- Go here and use the search "does google read my emails"
https://www.startpage.com/

DuckDuckGo — Privacy, simplified.
https://duckduckgo.com/

Google will no longer read your personal emails | WIRED UK
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/google-r ... ls-privacy

How to stop Google from tracking you and delete your personal data | WIRED UK
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/google-h ... -to-delete

Hope this helps ...

[kenetics]

I like Fastmail, hosted out of Australia. Totally professional and no ads, data mining or 3rd party sharing. You're allowed a large number of aliases. $30 per year for 2000 mb of storage.

[Bolle1961]

I don't see how paying makes it any better.

Great; let's hear your recommendations for free, ethical alternatives with good privacy policies and security.

Protonmail.com, Tutanota.com, Mailfence.com, Disroot.org

[jameskga]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. After reading various ToS I've decided to host a custom domain with Protonmail.

See you in Hell, Google!

[KBD47]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. After reading various ToS I've decided to host a custom domain with Protonmail.

See you in Hell, Google!

You got out just in time. Not content to just read our emails, Google is going to help write them:
https://www.straitstimes.com/tech/googl ... tor=CS3-17

[Moem]

Not content to just read our emails, Google is going to help write them:
https://www.straitstimes.com/tech/googl ... tor=CS3-17

... That makes me think of

Not a happy thought!

[KBD47]

LOL!

[lmuserx4849]

It seems weird that protonmail would register its' domain name at godaddy.