Greetings Everyone. I’m new to the world of Linux currently running Fedora 42 KDE Plasma. Question i have is seeing how I am moving from Windows that loves tracking my every move online I have been considering switching out my GMAIL Accounts as-well. I know this will be a long process verifying my new email to every account i have first, but I am currently trying to decide which email provider is best in this situation I have looked into Proton.me but have also thought about getting my own custom email name and domain and what that would look like and the best options out there for something like that. If anyone has done what i am looking to do with any suggestions i would be grateful.
Welcome to fedora world
I have been struggling the same thoughts and tested multiple options and I was even trying to ditch Gmail and was months without it it. For me my solution was ditch all Microsoft accounts and switched those to proton ones and keeping Gmail still. I also have my own domain and linked that to proton account so emails on that are also protected as all other accounts on proton.
On Gmail you can tweak the privacy settings alit now days more privacy focused and more secure ways like enable advanced protection etc.
I have separated use of emails like Gmail for personal use especially for casual usage like signing some not important sites etc. proton accounts I have split as personal privacy focused, development focussed and custom domain.
This is working for me and my preference on how I use everything and might give you some ideas how to approach your goals
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Migrating to a new email provider can be pretty daunting, but it will certainly improve your privacy. Proton Mail is good. Tuta is another good one. I believe these two options have been around for years and years, so you just have to find the one that works for you.
Since you mentioned getting your own domain name, that would make your transition easier no matter where you go since all email will go to that handle. You could transition to your new email address without switching off Gmail. Then if you switch to Proton or something else no one will have to learn a new email. You don’t have to make new accounts because your email address would stay the same. Essentially you switch once and you’re good. And it gives you more ownership over your digital identity in case something happens where you need to move to another provider, like folks who use Skiff Mail had to do when Skiff shut down.
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I second the option of having your own domain. It makes you independent of the email service provider, in case you’d want to switch. It’s also a good practice to not have the email service provider and the domain provider one and the same, even though this means you’ll have to set up the DNS entries yourself.
Besides the providers mentioned, additionally I would recommend mailbox.org. And for those preferring the Nextcloud offering, there is the possibility to go with a hosted instance.
Once done with this, you could have a look at Syncthing too (available in the repos), as a solid, local file synchronization alternative to cloud hosting.
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I use several email providers. Some are leftovers from different times/situations, some are for different uses. But, anyway, whatever service provider you pick, you can get “privacy” because messages are encoded while they are transmitted but you can’t get “privacy” once the messages are on the provider’s server. In short, the provider can access your messages.
The other option is to host your own mail server and use something like PGP for message encoding (which has the drawback all your contacts need to use PGP as well).
Oh, I forgot. In my experience the worst issue is you gave your mail address to many people (work, friends, doctors, public services, etc) then you change provider and you cannot keep the same address. So it is a good idea to plan for the long term.
there is good option on Gmail/google also you can set certain time frame on it when it is not used example 6 months it will automatically be deleted by google i have this setup too if i choose not to use it or loged out etc
I use OVH for email with a custom domain. It is cheap and almost everything works.
They have different deals for different countries, but you can sign up to whichever one you want.