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Can we have good and free email accounts without giving our data to provider?
- Thread starter hajime
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I'm sure others will give you some suggestions, but at the end of the day you're still putting your trust in a third party which is out of your control. FWIW I've used Gmail for well over a decade now with multiple accounts and no ill has befallen me. I guess if I were involved in illegal activities using Gmail it could've backfired, but I assume both you and I are talking about normal, legal, everyday email usage.
One trend seems to be that some companies seemed to offer free services out of generosity many years ago. However, after many people signed up and used their services for years, they changed. So even there are honorable companies offering free email services now, they may change later too. If not using third party email services, what options do we have?
Doesn't Apple offer email account?
Doesn't Apple offer email account?
Yes, Apple offers a free email account othwise known as user@icloud.com.
I set one up several months ago to test it out. But, I have received only one message -- from me. So, it works but I can't really say anything beyond that yet. I plan to use it more eventually. To date, I have gotten exactly zero spam, which I guess is to be expected if I have not yet put it into use.
If you are interested in email providers that do not use your data for tracking or marketing purposes, there are options each with limitations. You can look to providers such as Tutanota or Proton or Zoho Mail (which each allow a limited amount of free data storage before you would need to pay). I think Zoho Mail offers up to 5 gb data storage. This may work if you use an email client for storage.
I signed up with Yahoo some time in the second half of 1999. It was part of a web graphic design course to have an email address. 22+ years later I still use the account. It's the email address I give companies I do business with when I expect to be spammed by them (Yahoo has a really good spam filter) or to people who need an email address but whom I do not want having my ISP email address.
It's weird though, because Yahoo does have contacts, but I use Google contacts instead. I have a few gmail accounts but don't use them for anything personal.
I have one Gmail address for personal and one for everything else. I rarely get spam on my personal email, and if I do it's always caught by Gmail and never shows up in my inbox. One unsolved mystery, though, is that somehow Panera Bread has my personal email address even though I NEVER gave it to them. I signed up for an account with them using my "online" (non-personal) Gmail address, and that's what's in my profile on their website (my personal one is listed absolutely nowhere in any account or profile setting), but for some crazy reason they send order confirmations to my personal email address!!! I emailed their support and they said the only thing they can imagine is that since I used Apple pay, that it used my email associated with Apple Pay. But there's one problem with that theory: I've never given Apple my personal email, my "online" email has always been my Apple ID. I just can't imagine how they possibly got that email in their database, and it irritates me that there's seemingly no way to remove it. I pay with Apple pay with quite a few restaurant apps and have never received emails from them to my personal email address. So bizarre.
If the service is free, then more often then not, that means you (and your data) is the product being sold.
That is indeed strange. Someone probably sold your data and no one wants to cop to it.
I had my AppleID with my ISP email account for several years before I realized that if I ever moved my internet service I'd lose my ability to receive email from Apple. So, I changed it to an email address I can access no matter what internet service I'm using.
I hold no illusions that Yahoo or any other email provider is selling my info. Which is why I give that email address out according to my above post.
Which is why when my Yahoo data is sold, the buyers discover that I live in Singapore!
It is because of this that I am usually very suspicious of anything that is "free" and frown on "free" services. True "free" does not exist. Someone is paying for it somewhere.
I use Fastmail - it isn't cheap but it isn't too expensive either. I've got about 16 email accounts going through it. Been using it for years now, pretty happy with it. I prefer my mail to be web based if I can.
To the OP: I don't think that exists. Gmail is probably your best bet, but I don't doubt for a second that they aren't making $ off of emails. I think you have to have an education or Workspace account for that not to apply ($).
A data point for anybody concerned about privacy or security: Yahoo is now owned by a private equity firm. That means it is very likely user data is being monetized in every way possible. It also means there is a very high probability that Yahoo and all of its user data will be sold to another company–with currently unknowable business model and policies–within the next five years.
A possibility is that a data broker or marketing data aggregator matched that address to you. Sadly, this selling and trading of customer information using third parties as a conduit now takes places across companies and industries. For example, one's transactions, customer service history, and ratings on, say, AirBnB can affect one's ability to get a hassle-free refund at, say, target.com .
Yeah, but in my Panera bread account, my profile has the OTHER email address (there's not even a place to put a 2nd email address), yet they still send all emails to my personal email. So I could see maybe getting unsolicited marketing emails from them if what you said were true, but order confirmations made directly from my account (which has a totally different email address specified)? That I don't get at all.
Are you willing to work for free without expecting anything in return for the rest of your life?
Another possibility is Panera uses a white label backend for its ecommerce, like Shopify, that is also used by a company you've done business with. Matching a master user file to individual transactions is trivial for companies like Shopify because they have gigantic reach across thousands of retailers and millions of consumers.
If you care about security and privacy, stick with Apple mail, Proton, or Tutanota. Gmail is a bad option, in my opinion.
There’s an old saying among programmers "If it’s free then you are the product".
I think Gmail is good on security (it offers hardware based 2FA and non-SMS 2FA among other features) but (very) bad for privacy.
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ETA: to clarify, I meant physical, single purpose authentication devices (for example, those made by Yubico) when I said "hardware based 2FA)
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Yeah, I'm aware. Other than what is required, Yahoo has no personal details and I do not use the account for personal or financial use. It's mainly there for when I have to give someone a real email address.
Yahoo is the same. If I login from an unknown device I have to open a Yahoo app to approve the login.
I've heard that. For me it comes down to how much I'm willing to reasonably give in order to get free. For some people it's nothing, for me its mainly stuff I don't care that others know or that you could find as a matter of public record.
It really bothers people, me not so much.
During the pandemic, doctor offices, government agencies and other institutes sometimes ask people to send sensitive documents via emails. Is it a very bad option to use *mail when dealing with the government, doctors and financial institutes? Imagine what that company can do with all those information. They can scan your ID, medical records, financial records, etc. to build your profile and turn against you. I am not talking kidding. Besides iCloud, is it better to use email services from yahoo or MS?