On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 7:41 AM, David Rysdam <da...@rysdam.org> wrote: > On Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:32:43 -0500, Joshua Judson Rosen > <roz...@geekspace.com> wrote: >> Maybe you guys can suggest other providers, or just provide >> some thoughts on the two I've listed above. > > I think a reasonably protective feature should be something like getting > their own domain name in the email address.
Yes to this! Changing service providers is still a hassle, but at least you don't have to change your address. However, I'm not sure how feasible this is for non-technical users. There are a number of hoops you have to jump through to get it set up: buying the domain, finding a provider that supports hosting for a private domain, adding DNS entries for the email provider, etc. You could sign up through an all-in-one provider who can set everything up for you (looks like namecheap as a $3/yr plan), but then the non-technical user ends up sort of locked-in again: they *could* change, if they knew how... If I was going to move away from GMail, I'd go self-hosted. It just feels like it would be a hassle to switch -- and I'm already running a suitable server, I just have to run apt-get and do a bunch of configuration. > Here's the problem I ran into: I wanted to be logged out when using > Google as a search engine[1]. That meant not only no more GMail but also > no more Google Reader. If these friends 1) subscribe to RSS feeds and 2) > want to read them from multiple locations, they are going to need a > solution for that. That's what really drove me to my own hosting > solution. I needed to be able to install a web-based RSS reader, in > addition to having an email provider. Wandering a little OT here, but I've had basically the same thoughts as you. I wrote about maintaining "data silos" when the flap about the new privacy policy started: http://blog.bstpierre.org/maintaining-privacy-new-google-policy/ If you're willing to share your RSS habits with Google but just want to maintain RSS as a silo, you could keep a different browser window open just for Google Reader. You still have the convenience of hosted RSS but you don't have that data aggregated with the rest of your data. (At least in theory.) > [1] I don't even use them for that anymore, so it seems kind of moot, > but with their web bugs and trackers all over it really isn't. On FF you can use ghostery to kill those trackers (and/or noscript if you don't mind a bit of extra hassle). _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
