| When people say they move off gmail
because the stakes are too high, I've kind of bought into that line -- the stakes are very high in terms of having e-mail be the main way recover all sorts of other accounts. But then I've tried to get myself to switch email providers and it doesn't actually make any sense to me. Do I really believe, say, protonmail is less likely to screw me than gmail? Why? What are the actual odds of gmail screwing me? They're huge, a few horror stories don't indicate much. And protonmail is small, the fact that I haven't heard horror stories doesn't mean much. (Not trying to pick on protonmail specifically, I think this all applies to any other provider I've seen suggested.) Maybe the alternatives are in fact less likely to screw me due to some bullshit reason, I don't know. But I'm pretty sure with most other providers I'm more likely to get screwed for a technical reason, or because the company goes under, or because the company changes hands, or, if it's a paid service, because I fail to pay for some reason and the service doesn't degrade to free nicely. I think switching to hotmail might make sense. They're a similar size to gmail, but I haven't heard the horror stories. And they're similar in all the other ways, unlikely to have a major technical problem, unlikely to change hands or go under, and I can't forget to pay them because it's free. I'm just not convinced there's other better alternatives. If the stakes are too high the solution is probably just to make the stakes less high. |
If Proton screws up, you just lost your email, not your entire digital life.