[Enco]

Fuck no to hotmail.

I cringe whenever I see someone give me a hotmail email. Same as yahoo. They're just.. Not that professional. Not sure how an Apple @me account works but that might be good. I not, your own server like someone said is probably best.

For me gmail is the champion.

[GavinGT]

So Google's new privacy policy is that bad?

This stuff matters.

[ctrayne]

For me gmail is the champion.

This is the "Google dilemma". They offer great services, so everyone uses them, relies on them, depends on them. Then as they gradually change their privacy policies (or just don't adhere to them in the first place) people will continue to use them anyway. It's fucked up (the situation, not you).

[Pandaman]

And then have Google remake it whenever their policy changes? Yeah, okay. How about not doing that in the first place and instead if I want to use the service... I... *gasp*... will!? Same shit with tracking my shit because I'm logged into Gmail on Youtube. If I wanted a Faux Youtube account: I'd sign up. But I don't. So why auto-log me in besides LOL I WANT TO TRACK ALL YOUR DATAZ?

what are you, some kind of pirate?

[ctrayne]

what are you, some kind of pirate?

People are allowed to want privacy. No need to belittle.

[fanboi]

People are allowed to want privacy. No need to belittle.

Yes, of course, but Pandas point is he is making something out of nothing.

[OrangeGrayBlue]

I don't know what kind of information you are afraid of them knowing, but I second the suggestion to buy your own domain.

[Rocket Scientist]

I can't believe people are seriously recommending hotmail as an alternative. It is not, by far.

[ctrayne]

Yes, of course, but Pandas point is he is making something out of nothing.

Ah, gotcha.

@OrangeGrayBlue: It's not about hiding anything - most the information in my Gmail account is useless - it's about not willingly letting Google weasel its way into every corner of your life, amassing more and more information, becoming a giant collector of all personal data and selling it to marketers - oh, whoops, too late. They're like a steamroller, and they are not showing any signs of stopping, and as they continue to buy out more and more internet technologies, they're going to be very hard to avoid. Between YouTube and Gmail alone they have an endless trove of marketable information on each user.

[IrishNinja]

I can't believe people are seriously recommending hotmail as an alternative. It is not, by far.

ive got both, and this, so hard - if even just for spam filters alone.

[Jill Sandwich]

http://www.ihateclowns.com/email/

[peakish]

Ah, gotcha. @OrangeGrayBlue: It's not about hiding anything - most the information in my Gmail account is useless - it's about not willingly letting Google weasel its way into every corner of your life, amassing more and more information, becoming a giant collector of all personal data and selling it to marketers - oh, whoops, too late. They're like a steamroller, and they are not showing any signs of stopping, and as they continue to buy out more and more internet technologies, they're going to be very hard to avoid. Between YouTube and Gmail alone they have an endless trove of marketable information on each user.

As long as they're not selling data that can be tracked back to me personally this is a non-issue for me. It's good to know about this and make one's own decision of it's acceptable or not, so far (Well, at least to my knowledge) they haven't crossed any line over which I would abandon services I think work great today.


Aside: I'm a bit amused about the rumblings their new privacy policy has made all over the Internet. Were people in general not aware of the amount of information they tracked about users or that they shared this information between services? Or is it only a reminder of this fact? Because the new policy itself seems very okay from reading it, they're tracking lots of stuff but will only share aggregate information with third partners (except in very certain situations). Then again I'm no expert on this stuff so I might be missing something from their easy-to-read text which makes it more horrible than it seems.

I heard that the EU might set into law that companies will need to forget everything about users upon request, this would be the perfect final touch for me to never really worry about what they collect about me while using their services. I hope something like that passes. For now I assume that almost everything I do on the Internet isn't mine, if that could change so that my privacy could be more protected that would be superb.

[ShinobiFist]

I can't believe people are seriously recommending hotmail as an alternative. It is not, by far.

This. Yahoo is not that bad now....

[AAequal]

Hushmail. Free hushmail only has 25MB storage so that can be a problem for many. Premium has 1GB storage and costs 34$ a year.
http://www.hushmail.com/

[12STS]

People are allowed to want privacy. No need to belittle.

The only way to really assure privacy is to go offline. At the end of the day, these "free" services are run by the currency of data and you're ultimately trusting an unaccountable entity to do the right thing.

Furthermore, people who profess to want privacy rarely ever follow through in a coherent sense (AKA, they'll drop their Gmail account but keep using Facebook, or they'll drop Facebook/Gmail but move to Twitter/Hotmail.

[Persona7]

Fuck no to hotmail. I cringe whenever I see someone give me a hotmail email. Same as yahoo. They're just.. Not that professional. Not sure how an Apple @me account works but that might be good. I not, your own server like someone said is probably best. For me gmail is the champion.

How is gmail or apple email more "professional" than Hotmail or yahoo?

That is the strangest logic I have ever encountered. All these services have millions upon millions of users.

[12STS]

How is gmail or apple email more "professional" than Hotmail or yahoo? That is the strangest logic I have ever encountered. All these services have millions upon millions of users.

It's just another one of those opinions on illusory business standards like the fonts used on a resume or the paper you print it on.

[maeh2k]

ive got both, and this, so hard - if even just for spam filters alone.

I don't think that's the case. There was even a study recently that concluded that Hotmail's spam filter works a bit better than google mail's. link

For me personally, the spam filter in hotmail rarely ever lets something through.

I can't believe people are seriously recommending hotmail as an alternative. It is not, by far.

It is. Really. What do you guys think is so much better about google mail? I fail to see that clear superiority.
They made a lot of really great improvements to hotmail over the past year. I'd say it's absolutely competitive.

Fuck no to hotmail. I cringe whenever I see someone give me a hotmail email. Same as yahoo. They're just.. Not that professional. Not sure how an Apple @me account works but that might be good. I not, your own server like someone said is probably best.

I do not consider @hotmail or @live any worse than google, seeing how they are basically the same thing...
If someone's really worried about that, there's still the possibility of using one's own domain with gmail or hotmail.

[Vagabundo]

I've got a big investment in gmail and google docs. Its always worried me a little and I should really look into a backup. I'm not too pushed about data mining, but I'm worried about being forced to sign up to google+ and then being banned from my data if I don't want to give my realname etc..

And yahoo/hotmail's performance is terrible compared to gmail/gdocs.

[Copernicus]

You guys should totally ask for a pro rated refund after you close your google accounts.

[RoadHazard]

So Google's new privacy policy is that bad?

Uh, no. It's not worse than before, they have just rephrased it in terms a non-lawyer can grasp.

[highluxury]

i did the same thing and deleted my google accounts. I currently have an iCloud account with apple. same thing with my fb account. timelines are going to be enforced this week.

Wait-what??

Where did you read this?

[macuser1of5]

Really? Shit.

Well at least Facebook mobile will be spared. Ugh.

[Krabardaf]

Been using Hotmail for almost 10 years now, never bothered changing, never had a problem. I don't get why so many people change their mail addresses every 2 years, it's boring.
Of course you need to use a mail client cause the webmail is kind of shitty, WL Mail is enough for me.

[Tobor]

iCloud.

This is going to be my exit strategy. My .me address is already set up, I just need to pull the trigger.

[vaelic]

What new policy?

[OrangeGrayBlue]

@OrangeGrayBlue: It's not about hiding anything - most the information in my Gmail account is useless - it's about not willingly letting Google weasel its way into every corner of your life, amassing more and more information, becoming a giant collector of all personal data and selling it to marketers - oh, whoops, too late. They're like a steamroller, and they are not showing any signs of stopping, and as they continue to buy out more and more internet technologies, they're going to be very hard to avoid. Between YouTube and Gmail alone they have an endless trove of marketable information on each user.

More effective marketing strikes me as a win/win, but I also understand that this stuff simply doesn't phase me like it seems to with others. Marketers and Google have no interest in a person other than how to get them to click on an ad. They don't sit around and sift through your family photos whilst hiding in your bushes. If the data doesn't relate to your interests/hobbies which then result in more effective ads... they don't give a shit. It's hard for me to see why anyone would really mind such a practice, but I guess I'm just not as leery about that stuff.

[Tworak]

more privacy than google and people are suggesting hotmail, yahoo and icloud...? lol.

here's a good tutorial for a postfix + dovecot + roundcube + mysql + amavis + clamav + spamassassin debian email server. covers the basics.