5 Comments

The problem with email is its inherent insecurity; you can only protect against corporate tracking, not government surveillance. Whatever you do, if you want to ensure utmost privacy for what you have to communicate, it's best to avoid using email altogether—or ideally, abstain from digital mediums entirely.

Expand full comment
author

In hindsight, I'll admit I definitely didn't hit that particular point hard enough.

This guide, despite it's length, is intended for someone who isn't very aware, but it is a really important point that I may revisit.

I've considered that it's possible to use e-mail over other networks, but I'll admit it's a ton of effort for very little reward, other software tools handle things better.

At this rate, I think the more interesting question is will email ever die? For now there's a huge contingent of people raised with it, but I don't know how well adopted it is for younger people. I'm deeply suspicious it will be phased out when more of the novel "passwordless" methods get pushed onto people.

Expand full comment

For those of us that have our entire lives enmeshed with google, I can’t even begin to think to go through my 300+ subs to all kinds of services where my gmail account exists. Also, if I get a new email, would I then forward all gmails into it until the phase out process is over? I have about ten email accounts. This process seems daunting. I have never taken advantage of filtering or any of the benefits google even offers. I don’t think I’ll miss much by going with a different client. Just time consuming. And seeing that my friends are now receiving a warning label that my account is suspicious with my emails, I might have to start the process...

Expand full comment

One thing I do to handle the admittedly absurd amount of newsletters and whatnot is different accts for different purposes. One I use strickly for Substack email notifications. One I use for other news letters, and a third for things like bills and other important communications. Also use Simplelogin for throw away aliases for some things occasionally. I suppose 'foldering' would be easier for most people, but Im OCD-ish and it works for me.

Expand full comment

Thanks for this Gabe.

Expand full comment