• corroded@lemmy.worldEnglish
    42·
    7 months ago

    I run uBlock origin on every device I can. I use PiHole on my home network. I’ve canceled every streaming service in favor of self-hosting, and IoT devices are blocked from the internet. Incoming connections are geoblocked. Meta is blocked at the DNS level. Suffice to say I have put a lot of effort into privacy and security.

    I still can’t get rid of Google, though, solely because of Gmail. I’ve had the same address for so many years (ever since the invite-only days), it would be an absolute nightmare to try to change it.

    • Sanguine@lemmy.worldEnglish
      26·
      7 months ago

      Forward gmail to new provider and then use new email from now on. Eventually you’ll want to go in and update your email address for all the other sites you frequent…takes a few hours but you’ll be free.

      Did it last year and it was relatively easy.

      • teamevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        7 months ago

        Buy your own site and actually contrill your email. Like 20 a month and I have full control.

    • ManniSturgis@lemmy.zipEnglish
      14·
      7 months ago

      Nah, just get some email provider with a good reputation and setup gmail to forward all mail. From there you can start to change the emails in all your accounts one by one. And hey, even if takes you 5 years to complete, it’s still worth it. Oh, some else had the exact same recommendation. I should have read the other comments first. Oh well

    • 1984@lemmy.todayEnglish
      9·
      7 months ago

      And you think it will be easier to change if you wait a few more years? :)

      Create a new account and set up email forwarding and that’s a start.

      • corroded@lemmy.worldEnglish
        51·
        7 months ago

        I certainly don’t think it will be easier in a few years, but I also think that after 19 years of using gmail, a few more years aren’t going to make a huge difference. It’s really kind of sad to think about how far Google has fallen. I started with gmail in 2005. At the time, Google was starting to become the “go-to” search engine. They had better results than Yahoo or AltaVista; the “do no evil” slogan was also a great “feel-good” factor. I don’t think anyone at the time expected how different things would be in 2024.

        I can host my own media on my own server. I use Nextcloud Talk for IMs (also hosted on my own server). Just about any online service can be self-hosted, except for email. I have certainly tried in the past, even hosting email on a VPS. You run into so many issues, though. Your server isn’t trusted, websites don’t recognize your domain, a whole litany of problems. Email is just one of those things that you really can’t self-host.

        Sure, I could switch to a new email provider, forward gmail, and slowly over time update my email address for everyone who’s sending to my gmail account. What happens then when my new email provider decides to start harvesting my data for profit? Email is one of those things where you can’t live without it, but you’re forced to use a service that isn’t your own and could fuck you at any time.

        • Sanguine@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          7 months ago

          I had my gmail account since the early invite days too! Your final point is valid, there really is no way to tell if sometime down the line a company may change gears and we end up in the same BS we’re in now.

          That being said, proton seems to have a good track record so far and unless they get acquired down the line I can’t see them moving so drastically away from their focus on privacy.

        • 1984@lemmy.todayEnglish
          2·
          7 months ago

          Yeah I was also on Gmail when it was new, but it became appearent that Google was a bad actor many years ago. So I’ve been on fastmail for like 5 years now. It’s never been down. And it’s always very fast, and has many features Google doesn’t have at all. They do care about privacy but since it’s hosted in Australia which is part of the 5 eyes pact, all data is shared with the NSA. To me it’s OK. I just want my email to be in a better place than Google.

          But yeah I would also self host it if I could. I have a proxmox cluster with tons of virtual machines at home, running nomad to schedule jobs on them. I have pihole as a dns server so i get a lot of tracking protection just from that.

    • DontMakeMoreBabies@kbin.social
      3·
      7 months ago

      I just got my own domain and set my Gmail account to auto forward. Gradually moving away from using it (I was in the same boat).

      Edit: Of course my backend is Microsoft for the time being so ‘into the fire’ I guess.