[Sandwich]

Anybody using an email service that isn’t Google? What is it and why do you like it?

in the new year, I’m trying to de-googlify as much as I can. Google is the best, but also the most invasive service you can get, so I’m trying to change to DuckDuckGo or Apple Maps or whatever, and next on the list is email. I am willing to pay for it, up to maybe $35/yr. Any suggestions?

 

[johnbryanpeters]

Anybody using an email service that isn’t Google? What is it and why do you like it?

in the new year, I’m trying to de-googlify as much as I can. Google is the best, but also the most invasive service you can get, so I’m trying to change to DuckDuckGo or Apple Maps or whatever, and next on the list is email. I am willing to pay for it, up to maybe $35/yr. Any suggestions?

My sister is using Proton mail.

 

[canadmos]

Invasive as in the information you hand over to them?

You can opt out of a lot of it, it just takes some doing.

What phone do you have?

 

[Sandwich]

Invasive as in the information you hand over to them?

You can opt out of a lot of it, it just takes some doing.

What phone do you have?

iPhone 12 I think.

 

[kidwoo]

thunderbird via firefox

I need to get off the google as well

 

[eric strt6]

Earthlink is really good for email unless you send attachments over 20mb which is a no go

 

[CBJ]

I use this new service called Hotmail

 

[junkyard]

I used hotmail so long it became outlook and then outlook became popular. It took 25 years. Another fun fact, I’ve had the same phone number since 1998 as well.

 

[stoney]

I moved to SF in 2004. I've had my phone number since then and see no intention of ever changing it. Most of my friends that left SF have done the same.

 

[Gary]

Hasn't pretty much everyone over 40 had the same Phone No & Email since the late 90s?

 

[Changleen]

I did the same a couple of years ago; got ride of Google from my iPhone. I use iCloud email, Apple maps, all that stuff. Just embrace the Apple ecosystem, aside from getting weird and uncomfortable with Linux it is the most secure.

I was super strict about it for ages but later caved a little and installed the Google app which I very occasionally use for their excellent live image text translations, mostly for when I’m shopping for and cooking with Chinese, Japanese or Korean ingredients. I give the app the minimal privileges, ‘only while using’ and am sure to shit it down properly when I’m done.

I have an Apple One subscription for my fam which is AoNZ$30 a month for everything for everyone, music, movies yadda yadda. Apple’s privacy stuff is pretty great if you’re willing to have a little tinker. I love the granular control I have over my kid’s device usage too, and FindMy makes me feel a tonne better when they’re out and about.

 

[jonKranked]

carrier pigeons?

 

[Sandwich]

Hasn't pretty much everyone over 40 had the same Phone No & Email since the late 90s?

I had to change mine once because of the overwhelming amount of spam I got. I entered my # into a car warranty website and they immediately sold it to everybody they could. If you are listening CarShield, I hate you. I was always overly cautious and finally decided that was dumb...then I started getting 5 calls a day. Now I'm back to quiet.

I don't really want to change my email, but I'm at 90% full and I'm tired of ads at the top of my inbox. As mentioned, google has access to everything I search for, everywhere I visit, every email I send, and for some folks every photo you take. I'd like to diversify a bit...using firefox to browse, icloud for hosting, apple maps/google maps for mapping, and duckduckgo for searching. Looking to add email to the list.

 

[Sandwich]

Invasive as in the information you hand over to them?

You can opt out of a lot of it, it just takes some doing.

What phone do you have?

You can opt out of targeted advertising, but they still collect it. And they willfully hand it over to anybody who asks. People are so concerned over what facebook does, but google would sell your soul for a few nickles. Apple told the FBI to go pound sand, even though it was in everybody's best interest to crack the security of two terrorists phones.

 

[jimmydean]

I've never used my Gmail account, I know it's stupid old but I've had my yahoo address for like 25 years.

 

[canadmos]

You can opt out of targeted advertising, but they still collect it. And they willfully hand it over to anybody who asks. People are so concerned over what facebook does, but google would sell your soul for a few nickles. Apple told the FBI to go pound sand, even though it was in everybody's best interest to crack the security of two terrorists phones.

I guess it all comes down to what you're comfortable with. I am sure that majority of sites that have ad generated revenue and surveys are all collecting your information. Hopefully it's anonymous.

Don't law enforcement agencies have ways to unlock iPhones or they did?

 

[binary visions]

Proton Mail is probably the most privacy-focused email service around now.

If you're just looking to diversify so that all of your stuff isn't with the same big provider, then Outlook/Hotmail is good, and there's probably less of a chance of Microsoft shuttering their email service than Proton going out of business.

But if you want privacy, Proton is the way to go.

 

[Gary]

I had to change mine once because of the overwhelming amount of spam I got. I entered my # into a car warranty website and they immediately sold it to everybody they could. If you are listening CarShield, I hate you. I was always overly cautious and finally decided that was dumb...then I started getting 5 calls a day. Now I'm back to quiet.

lol
My main email is Outlook(Hotmail) and currently has 7000+ unread emails and 150 or so in junk
I occasionally get a few unsolicited calls some weeks but have no idea (and don't really care) where exactly the callers got my number from. Always from a number I don't recognise (usually a major UK City) so I just ignore 'em. The only time it can be even vaguely annoying is if they call while I'm on my (bike) commute. I always commute with music via bluetooth buds so I'll answer the call without seeing the number. Had some fairly funny convos on the way home through it.

Ironically my Outlook Email is managed on my phone through the Gmail App

I don't really want to change my email, but I'm at 90% full

What? Email can become FULL?

and I'm tired of ads at the top of my inbox

Can't you just take 2 secs and mark them as junk if they bother you?

As mentioned, google has access to everything I search for, everywhere I visit, every email I send, and for some folks every photo you take.

Never really understood folk's issue with this. Pretty much everything Westerners do in modern life is monitored in some way. Usually by the person's own (perhaps naive) choice. Hell. We all type personal shit about our lives and preferences right here.

I'd like to diversify a bit...using firefox to browse, icloud for hosting, apple maps/google maps for mapping, and duckduckgo for searching. Looking to add email to the list.

Fair enough. Brother! But your fight seems pretty futile to me.

Apple are cunts too

 

[jonKranked]

lol
My main email is Outlook(Hotmail) and currently has 7000+ unread emails and 150 or so in junk
I occasionally get a few unsolicited calls some weeks but have no idea (and don't really care) where exactly the callers got my number from. Always from a number I don't recognise (usually a major UK City) so I just ignore 'em. The only time it can be even vaguely annoying is if they call while I'm on my (bike) commute. I always commute with music via bluetooth buds so I'll answer the call without seeing the number. Had some fairly funny convos on the way home through it.

Ironically my Outlook Email is managed on my phone through the Gmail App

What? Email can become FULL?
Can't you just take 2 secs and mark them as junk if they bother you?
Never really understood folk's issue with this. Pretty much everything Westerners do in modern life is monitored in some way. Usually by the person's own (perhaps naive) choice. Hell. We all type personal shit about our lives and preferences right here.
Fair enough. Brother! But your fight seems pretty futile to me.

Apple are cunts too

who let Gary out from the DH forum?

 

[Gary]

Christmas holiday init?

I'm diversifying

 

[stoney]

I have Gmail, but make a point of unsubscribing from everything as soon as I'm done with the provider. I only get 3-4 emails that are not personal now, with Gmail's junk filter scrubbing everything else. I got bored one day and just went through deleting emails at one point, which opened up my email capacity from 75% full to 75% open. Just find an email, search for the sender, then bulk delete page after page. You can also have multiple email addresses with Gmail. I have 3 - personal, work related (Linkedin, applications, etc), and junk. It keeps things really clean.

 

[jonKranked]

Christmas holiday init?

I'm diversifying

did someone put LSD in your haggis?

also happy holidays dude

 

[Gary]

Cheers man. you too.

 

[Gary]

which opened up my email capacity from 75% full to 75% open.

Can someone please explain to me what this means?
Where are you seeing a capacity?
The 7000+ emails I qouted are just what's currently in my inbox and are just from the last 18mths to a year or so.
There must be at least 10x that which are archived.
GMail phone app just holds a month or so of Emails ( which at a guess for me will be somewhere around 3-400?) in the inbox/junk unless I D/L (Load more) to the phone. Or search.

I'm fairly sure I could delete every Email and it wouldn't be the end of the world. But why bother?

 

[Sandwich]

Google has a 15gb capacity before you need to pay for more storage. I am at like 12.5gb after like 18yrs of the same email address. That includes photo storage.

emptying spam and advertisements usually get me 2.5gb back

 

[binary visions]

Can someone please explain to me what this means?
Where are you seeing a capacity?

If you log into Gmail.com and scroll to the bottom, you'll see amount used vs. amount available. I think in the app if you tap your user icon in the upper right it'll tell you the storage used.

 

[Gary]

If you log into Gmail.com and scroll to the bottom, you'll see amount used vs. amount available. I think in the app if you tap your user icon in the upper right it'll tell you the storage used.

Ah.. .Ok. Thanks. Now I see why you'd (*possibly) want more storage. If I sign into my main Gmail account on chrome I've used 0.08GB of 15GB
There's no user icon on my Gmail phone App at all though. The App simply manages 2 rarely used Gmail accounts and my Outlook account. Saving me from having the Outlook App

*I can't really see me ever needing moar than 15GB Email storage. My main email account (outlook) has less than 6/15GB storage used with 50000+ emails I'll never read. Between archive and inbox the vast majority of it being worthless junk.

 

[slyfink]

Ah.. .Ok. Thanks. Now I see why you'd (*possibly) want more storage. If I sign into my main Gmail account on chrome I've used 0.08GB of 15GB
There's no user icon on my Gmail phone App at all though. The App simply manages 2 rarely used Gmail accounts and my Outlook account. Saving me from having the Outlook App

*I can't really see me ever needing moar than 15GB Email storage. My main email account (outlook) has less than 6/15GB storage used with 50000+ emails I'll never read. Between archive and inbox the vast majority of it being worthless junk.

the main issue is for people who also use Google Photos. Up until this spring, Google Photos wouldn't count "low res" photos against your 15 gig cap. The cap also includes your Google Drive. But now it does. So in the space of 6-9 months, most people who use the Google ecosystem are hitting their free storage cap. They will have to pay, or look for alternatives. I think it's the photos that really fill up your capacity.

I'm in the same boat, and looking for alternatives to Google photos. I could use a different cloud storage service (Amazon Prime has a huge cap included for members), but it's not as streamlined as Google. And you can't create albums and share them as easily (I think). It's something I'll be exploring over the break.

I pay for youtube premium (I started paying for Google Play for the music, and then getting ad-free YT was only an extra two or three bucks), and I'm already annoyed at their price increase. I find the whole "oh, we're going to make you pay for storage, now that we have used you as beta testers to develop our software and that you hooked on our services" a bit of a bait and switch, so I don't have much goodwill towards them. I might pay for more value (more privacy), but if they still use all the data stored to also make money on the side without paying me for it, screw them...

 

[canadmos]

Does anyone remember when Gmail first started, it had limited storage, but there was a rolling counter show how the free storage was increasing daily. We were all the fish being baited to bite the hook for free popular stuff.

the main issue is for people who also use Google Photos. Up until this spring, Google Photos wouldn't count "low res" photos against your 15 gig cap. The cap also includes your Google Drive. But now it does. So in the space of 6-9 months, most people who use the Google ecosystem are hitting their free storage cap. They will have to pay, or look for alternatives. I think it's the photos that really fill up your capacity.

I'm in the same boat, and looking for alternatives to Google photos. I could use a different cloud storage service (Amazon Prime has a huge cap included for members), but it's not as streamlined as Google. And you can't create albums and share them as easily (I think). It's something I'll be exploring over the break.

I pay for youtube premium (I started paying for Google Play for the music, and then getting ad-free YT was only an extra two or three bucks), and I'm already annoyed at their price increase. I find the whole "oh, we're going to make you pay for storage, now that we have used you as beta testers to develop our software and that you hooked on our services" a bit of a bait and switch, so I don't have much goodwill towards them. I might pay for more value (more privacy), but if they still use all the data stored to also make money on the side without paying me for it, screw them...

Yeah that switching of the photos thing kind of sucked. It was nice of them to store the low res versions for free. I'm an idiot and didn't notice my stuff wasn't being backed up and then watched my phone slide off the roof of my car and into a ditch on the freeway last year (I think last year..). I have a pretty large gap of photos missing from my backup; not the end of the world, but it stung a bit as some were from trips, animals that are now gone etc etc. But yeah, my fault for not paying attention though.

I now pay the $3 per month or whatever it is for 100gb of storage and take advantage of the Google ecosystem. Yeah my info is being sold to the devil, but it's easy to use and I'm already deep in that rabbit hole. I'm also an Android user so it works.