I have this bad feeling daily that for whatever reason I loose access to my gmail. Don’t think of anything shady but simply I just loose it. There is a very small chance to it but still. You can read the stories that people uploaded their family photos to google drive and the algorithm marks their kids photos CP and they loose their account. Or maybe your email is used to spam or anything similar. There is no way to talk to google support, it is an endless loop of help pages. I just can’t live with this. I know billions of people do, but I cannot. My email address is registered to hundreds of websites including government and banking sites. You could literally destroy me financially or other ways by just gaining login to my gmail. Google could cause me HUGE problems by locking me out. I decided to start transitioning to an email with my own domain. I have the doimain, I have the email client setup. So what do you do with your existing stuff? Most websites dont even let you change the email. I have to take appointment in government offices to change my email. It seems like a giant task.
Have anyone took this leap?
Before you change your accounts over to your new email, use email aliases like anonaddy or simplelogin for your online accounts.
This is what I’ve done. I’ve literally just moved to Proton from Gmail. I created aliases for all my sites. The only site that knows about my Proton email address is SimpleLogin.
The only emails in Gmail now are from Google services tied to that Gmail account.
I used Bitwarden to help generate the aliases.
you’re a fucking genius.
I’ve been contemplating this exact thing and after reading this thread, I know what I’m doing tonight. ty!
The biggest downside is there is a cost associated with doing all this. I’ve gone from free to paying for a domain (optional), SimpleLogin and protonmail.
If you’re going to use SimpleLogin and proton then look at their proton unlimited tier. I had SimpleLogin prior to proton so I only use the Mail Plus tier. SimpleLogin comes included in the unlimited tier.
Same, easy as… Plus you know who’s leaking your email to spammers and can just turn off the tap, it’s glorious. Combined with temp mail (browser add on ) for truly disposable addresses and I get no spam. They’ll probably find their way through in time, but for now, golden.
Does bitwarden offer an email alias service, or you just used it to generate the alias names?
Most websites don’t let you change the email? Just create a new account then.
You have to make some sacrifices to get away from having your entire identity online tied to Google. Be willing to have some downsides to get upsides.
I found this easier than expected. I was already in the habit of not using my main personal account for online signups etc - just for friends and family. So i setup forwarding for the important contacts first. If I get a fwded mail i make sure I respond from the new one so they have it . There were still some services using gmail - utility companies etc. I switched each of those to other addresses using a redirector - at first simplelogin , now hide my email (but probably going to switch again). I left the gmail live for now. Downloaded everything using GoogleTakeaway. I havent yet closed it down so not sure what that involves yet, but Im not dependent on it now.
It might seem daunting at first, but get started and gradually move stuff to your new address. It does sound like you live in a place where this might be easier said than done saying that. Maybe the gmail address stays live only with a few final gov services (dont forget to filter and fwd them).
I’m still transitioning to gmail from my hotmail accounts…
*Lose
You could literally destroy me financially or other ways by just gaining login to my gmail.
Sounds like you need to start using MFA.
