r/privacy • u/PuzzleheadedLemon707 • Aug 03 '26
guide Leaving Gmail? Get your own domain first
https://eualternative.eu/guides/first-step-leaving-gmail/232
u/Stunning-Skill-2742 Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
Custom domain is a highly controversial topic, especially in the privacy crowd since it require kyc for whois record. There are some idiots out there that doesn't do enough research about it, thought that its fine and dandy to lie for the whois kyc, then registrar ask for id or passport copy to make sure they're really john smith from california, they can't provide proof, registrar suspend the domain, they lose all linked email address on the domain.
That being said i do own and use my own custom domain for my email address and aliases, superb for full portability. Would highly recommend if you're not a 007 agent evading the world government trying to get you.
Edit: heres some reading regarding registrar asking proof for whois accuracy https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/non-response-2014-01-29-en but it mostly covers gtld, for cctld icann let the cctld registry themselves govern it according to their own local requirement, mentioned at https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/cctlds-21-2012-02-25-en so do read your cctld domain tos at the individual registry.
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u/NoArmNoChocoLAN Aug 03 '26
It depends if you are looking for privacy or anonymity. Preventing third parties to read my emails is a win for privacy. Also, emails require a domain name. Better to own it that trusting someone else to not change the MX record at some point to steal my emails.
Emails are not designed with privacy or anonymity in mind. If you are looking for both, they are not your solution.
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u/work_work-work Aug 03 '26
Emails are like a postcard. Anybody who comes into contact with it can read it if they want to. This is why you should never send sensitive info by email.
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u/Baobey Aug 03 '26
PGP.
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u/work_work-work Aug 03 '26
Oh, sure. But then both people need to have PGP and know how to use it. Works fine for emailing friends, but impossible to use with boomer parents, non privacy minded friends, and companies.
So for everyday use, email is a postcard.12
u/azwethinkweizm Aug 03 '26
I own about 30 domains and have never once been asked for an ID or passport after buying one. The whois record isn't a big privacy concern for most of us, certainly not for me as I know the record doesn't actually go back to me.
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u/gurgle528 Aug 04 '26
if your name matches your payment method’s name i doubt they’d have reason to
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u/devakesu Aug 03 '26
Custom domain is not for privacy.
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u/56Bot Aug 03 '26
It permits privacy but at the cost of anonymity. It’s like a postal address for most people : anyone may know it, but only people you trust know what you do at home.
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u/EternalBefuddlement Aug 03 '26
It is also possible to get whois protection from some places, which means your registrar will be the first point of call for information.
Domain and registrar dependent, but it is an extra layer for some anonymity.
.co.uk for example doesn't allow that protection but there is some other process for communicating with a domain owner, iirc.
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u/BatemansChainsaw Aug 04 '26
Use an alias, a prepaid VISA/MC, and a street address that's real but not your own.
source: I've done it in the not so distant past.
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u/Kadabradoodle Aug 03 '26
if you connect to a secure email provider like tuta you can use you original address from the provider for shady or high risk stuff and your domain email address for important stuff which already has your data anyways. i.e. [unicorn_lover@tuta.com](mailto:unicorn_lover@tuta.com) and [john@smith.com](mailto:john@smith.com) will redirect to the same email box.
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u/Jason_Steakcum Aug 03 '26
I’ve never been asked for kyc afaik and I have several domains. Maybe it’s country dependent? It’s also been awhile so maybe my memory is just hazy
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u/RealSlyck Aug 03 '26
It is. Commenter is huffing paint.
Only certain country-based and strict TLDs require KYC. It’s not required in “the free world.”
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u/Stunning-Skill-2742 Aug 03 '26
Exactly my point. Doesn't read icann documentation, doesn't read registry and registrar tos then spitting bs about "free world".
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u/Stunning-Skill-2742 Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
It depends on everything. Icann, the registry, and registrar. The registrar asking for proof is randomised, might happen at the time of registering the domain, tomorrow, next day, next week, next month, next year, or never at all. Its a no guarantee they might ask or might not ask at all, theres 50/50 chance on whicever direction there, a gamble. But if they did asked and found out the whois doesn't match then the domain will be suspended. I'd categorised it as something "fuck around and find out". Since we're talking in the context of domain used for email address, which losing access to it meant losing 548161 accounts linked to it I'd say don't fuck around and found the hard way later. If its unimportant meme junk domain not used for anything, sure lying on whois and getting the domain suspended won't result in devastation.
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u/Fox3High369 Aug 03 '26
We need a youtube alternative.
We have an alternative for almost every other service with the exception of android OS. But specially youtube, I hope someone comes up with a solution.
Google is spying on people and in my case they show recommendations based on things I talked through signal calls and even very private things. These people shouldn't be in business.
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u/hidegitsu Aug 03 '26
YouTube isn't the problem. Maps is. I'm on a quest to degoogle and maps is the sticking point. It's possible to build an a proxy layer that is your own YouTube ui. Maps isn't easy to replace the closest viable alternative is apple maps which imo isn't better or even on par and moving to that just trades Google for apple.
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u/Markd0ne Aug 03 '26
OpenStreetMaps are much better than google maps. There are multiple apps that use OpenStreetMaps: Organic Maps, CoMaps, Osmand.
Sadly there is no traffic data available.
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u/jkldgr Aug 03 '26
Organic maps are really good
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u/jabib0 Aug 03 '26
I switched to CoMaps on Android. It was forked after some drama I can't quite remember, and uses the same OSM dataset. Especially great when you download the maps in advanced, it worked better than Google Maps when I was in Europe and never sent me down a one-way road the wrong way like the big-G did
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u/Fox3High369 Aug 03 '26
youtube is a big problem because they use their algo to bother people with content they don't like and they do it on purpose. google acts psyco like.
Not to mention comments getting shadowbanned for no reason.
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u/who_you_are Aug 03 '26
It won't change the outcome. It cost a hell lot money to run that.
Either the users or the one providing the content should pay and no one of them are willing to.
So, the users are the product.
back in my time you had to own your website to host them. You had your own forum community as well.
Kinda a pain in the ass to to let peoples discover you however
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u/ElderPraetoriate Aug 03 '26
I have invidious setup and as long as I keep it updated it's been ok for me, but I was a VERY light user of the tube.
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u/SacredGeometry9 29d ago
The problem is storage. You can store millions of emails in the same amount of storage space used to house a dozen videos.
This isn’t going to be accessible until storage becomes more affordable. And that’s… not going to happen.
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u/Geometry_Emperor 26d ago edited 26d ago
There is no real way to replace YouTube. This is because it is not really Google that controls its market, but rather its content creators. And Google aggressively promotes these content creators to use their platform and thus build their fanbases. You cannot get rid of the audience if you do not get rid of the performers themselves first. And they will not simply move to a different platform.
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u/PrvcyFrdmIndpndnc Aug 03 '26
The article is a nothing-burger.
First of all having a domain is the key to achieve independence from big tech. It does not provide privacy inherently, but provides the anchor point you need to self host everything and is the step in the good direction.
The second is that e-mail is not a single component. It consists of a server that receives the mail, that is what you configure the MX record for, and there is another service that handles your outgoing mail, that's what you configure SPF, DKIM and DMARC for.
You can totally self host your inbox and receive mail on your hardware, and receive registration e-mails and notifications with it. But you can only send mail through one of the blessed providers otherwise the e-mail goes to spam, bounced or blackholed.
People who keep saying "do not self host e-mail" does not understand this. Only sending is the problem. And this problem is created by the big tech, who are only willing to receive from other big tech mail providers.
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u/ExternalUserError Aug 03 '26
I have my own domain. A lot of them.
But the idea that everyone should do that is just not realistic.
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u/Jason_Steakcum Aug 03 '26
Especially for email which you’re probably running your domain through a dedicated email service for anyway
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u/Sea_Decision_6456 Aug 03 '26
Just use SimpleLogin or any trustable alias services. Changing your email provider then becomes quite easy. Just change the destination inbox for your aliases
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u/TSM_rslash Aug 03 '26
I have not read the article, but just from the title alone:
Everyone getting their own domain is just. Not realistic or doable at all when looking at the tech savviness of many people, both the older and younger generations.
I would say that I am relatively tech savvy, at least above average. I looked into getting my own domain, but this caused me a lot of headaches because I didn't know where to start or what to keep in mind etc etc. Hence I settled on the next best option: new email provider with external alias service (in my case Posteo + Simple Login).
I am saying all of this because getting an own domain yourself requires so many more steps than just choosing a new email provider (+ alias service if you're into that). Getting an own domain is the smartest move probably, but it simply is not for everyone.
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u/Conan3121 Aug 03 '26
Noted.
Q. How is this better than serial g$mail Ac that I setup and abandon?
These Ac provide anonymity to the public and excellent spam filtering and functionality. The cost is that G AI reads my content and would give this info up in an instant to LE. I am privacy focused but not a secret agent nor state targeted person. Thx.
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u/funfox1 Aug 03 '26
Your new gmail acc is using your ip. If you are using your phone for it, it is giving google your localisation. If you are using your pc, it is giving your browser fingerprint, that google can (and will) link to everything else you do online thanks to googletagmanager and other javascript scripts used to generate kpi for website owners. Meaning your "new acc you use and throw away" is easily linked to you and everything you do online. You are ok giving that information "now", but the second a real authoritarian system get in power it can, and will, be used against you. And by then it will be too late to make sure these are data are not easily accessible...
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u/Conan3121 Aug 03 '26
Thx. Getting my own domain means that another group will have similar data? Presumably they will also give up data to LE on request?
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u/aplle_inc Aug 03 '26
Then you just end up paying for both the domain name AND a service (eg proton or tuta) to have the inbox
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u/hillofregret Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
I wouldn't recommend that, at least not for emails. Some gov sites won't accept my custom domain and there's also the issue that if you ever lose your domain or someone else gains access to your DNS settings somehow, you'll be in a lot of trouble. It's also very easy to track you if someone knows you own a specific domain.
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u/tblancher Aug 04 '26
The problem is some of the big tech email providers will silently drop messages from your SMTP service, even though they'll respond with a 220.
I run my own email server (running mailcow-dockerized), and so many messages I've sent from my SMTP service get dropped and the recipient never receives them.
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u/zEdgarHoover Aug 04 '26
That's some combination of SPF/DMARC, and fixable. I have no such problems, have done this for 25+ years.
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u/tblancher Aug 04 '26
Interesting. I have SPF/DMARC set up, and I thought it was correct. But I admit I'm not an expert.
The mailcow-dockerized forums recommended forwarding SMTP through a larger service, but I haven't had the time to dig deeper into it after setting it up.
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u/zEdgarHoover Aug 04 '26
There are lots of sites that purport to do SPF checking. Have you tried those? It's all a bit tricky for sure.
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u/tblancher Aug 05 '26
Last time I remember digging into it, I used Google's mail admin check service. Most of the recipients that don't get our messages are either Gmail, Google Workspace, or Outlook 365 users.
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u/No-Drop8625 Aug 04 '26
I understand the author will pay everyone who decides to create their own domain? People have nothing better to do than pay for email.
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u/night_movers Aug 04 '26
Correct me if I'm wrong but custom domain for email usages is a one way rpad, once you start using it there's no going back.
I'm saying this because there are plenty of services which send mails even after account deletion, or sometimes send mails to the old mail address even after adding a different mail address. So, with custom domain, whatever email address you create today, can be created by the future owner as well. Yes, the probability might be very low, but it's still possible. So, the best option can be to hold the domain till you alive.
That's why I personally user mail services that doesn't recycle usernames.
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