by cmsellers » Fri Feb 15, 2019 8:45 am
I got a message that someone had entered my credentials into an email address I don't usually use. I assumed it was Google being confused by my VPN, but it turned out that the login attempt was from the UK, and I've only used my VPN from the US, Mexico, and Australia. So to be safe, I changed that password.
Then, out of an abundance, of paranoia, I changed my GMail password. Google has been trying to get me to revoke Thunderbird's access to my email because it views it as insecure for some reason, and it apparently took this opportunity to decide that changing my password meant I wanted to take its advice on this, so I had to reauthorize it, which was annoying.
Also, Google has been annoying me enough that I've been experimenting with other sites, but you get what you pay for. I also tried using Yandex (Russia's Google) which for some reason came recommended on a couple sites. I then tried using it to register on a website, but it turns out that if you don't give it a phone number and it thinks you're doing something suspicious, like using a VPN, it will basically shadowban you. You can't send or receive emails until you give it your phone number and it won't tell you this. And yeah, I'm totally giving a Russian company my phone number.
From looking around, the best option seems to be the Swiss-based ProtonMail (you will have to either not use a VPN or give it your phone number, but it tells you this and promises not to store your phone number), but you can only store 500 MB of mail on the free account, which is nothing. When I have money, I may start using the paid version.