I want to change my main email. I’m using gmail right now. Which free email host do you trust and recommend? Hopefully one that I can open from the phone and the desktop, instead of from the web.

  • Evan
    2•2 years ago

    Don’t use free email, with cloud software if it’s free than your the product. I’m not some GNU bible slapper but genuinely you should

    1. Pay 10$ a year for a domain
    2. Pay 20$ a year for migadu or for another email provider for domains

    This means you can still get emails if your email provider locks you out by switching providers and vice versa.

    For free users on @hotmail, @gmail, etc, if Google locks them out even by mistake they are screwed, and it does happen, like to terraria’s lead dev and the partner of a Google employee.

    Remember, email is rarely ever encrypted and it’s worth paying for your privacy

      • Evan
        1•2 years ago

        I think you are forgetting that

        1. We are on c/privacy, this is important to OP
        2. Most services today will send you an email to verify account changes, while (almost always) not impossible, it’s a pain in the ass to recover your account for every single service.
          • Evan
            1•2 years ago

            The domain does not provide extra privacy, but it does not ditch extra privacy also. buttman@gmail.com vs butt@man.com are two emails addressed to you, but no one knows who you are.

            Rather, it provides a framework to be a digital nomad, switching email providers at a whim while not needing to do account recovery. An @protonmail can’t do that.

            In the later half

            I essentially read the “what’s the point of privacy if you have nothing to hide” argument. I don’t do drugs or run a torrent tracker.

            mistakes do happen and especially with services featuring a free tier, they have so many users they don’t have time to double check their actions or care about providing good support. I already provided two examples of pretty notable people getting banned from Google for unknown reasons and still not being able to get their account back.

            Closer to home, let’s look at Lemmy. As it’s still small, the admins interact with the users and think twice before banning. Reddit on the other and is the opposite, because they quite literally have a million times more people to worry about.

    • @fleurc@lemmy.ml
      5•2 years ago

      Not everything Free means you’re the product, do research on the email provider, do research on the company. Relying on “You’re the product” is going to be complicated, also paying for anything doesn’t make you less of a product, just look at games.

      Set up your own emails or procure an Open-Source provider

    • @rcbrk@lemmy.ml
      4•2 years ago

      if it’s free than your the product

      Providing a basic email service with small storage/traffic allowance costs in the order of cents per UserMonth.

      From the business perspective, giving something for free can basically be considered a marketing (advertising) expense – essential for building a successful business.

      If you get the free storage/traffic/feature allowance in the sweet spot, it’s useful enough that free users stick around and you get a good reputation, yet juuust constrained enough that users who want that little bit more convenience or features will consider a paid plan. And word-of-mouth advertising is super effective – all the happy users will recommend your paid service to family/friends/acquaintances who happen to be looking for a service provided by them.

      Another benefit free services can provide to the business (especially in early stages of developing a system/business) is real-world testing at scale of your infrastructure and processes with real users.

      • Evan
        1•2 years ago

        Thanks, you and @fleurc@lemmy.ml reminded me that indeed there are some goodies out there.

        For me personally, I do want the extra reassurance from the fact the company is profiting off me without reselling my data and I encourage others to also do that, but I am willing to believe there are free services that do respect privacy