It's hard to make the full switch towards a more private life, but switching your mail already fixes a big underlying issue: that being, Google or other companies having access to all your emails. So, I'll cover the basics of making your online mailing more private.
Switching Mail Providers:
Your email is a big part of your online footprint and helps you keep track of your online identity. So, in order to keep that to yourself, I encourage leaving services like:
"Gmail" or "Outlook",
for others like:
"ProtonMail" or "Tutanota".
This is already a big step towards keeping all your emails private and safe. Both of these are free and respect your privacy on their free tier, but expand in features with paid plans. This takes time, as you have to switch your email on most accounts to this new email.
For the best privacy, you should delete most accounts and create new ones with this new email or with aliases. Some people, like myself, prefer to have multiple emails over aliases. For example:
- "something.banking11231@provider.me" -> For banking and finance
- "something.social12312@provider.me" -> For social media
- "general.use@provider.me" -> For casual and responsible internet use
- "something.trash21412@provider.me" -> For crappy websites or similar uses
(Self-hosting your own mail domain is possible, but it’s a harder process, and custom domains are not always accepted or reliable.)
(You should keep your old email for a year or so to make sure no important service was left behind locked to that email. Once that's done, you can delete the account.)
Tips:
If you can, you should try expanding your protocol with this:
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Adding 2FA to any online website, especially email. I use ~~"Authy" ~~for this. -> Better use Aegis, good app!
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Switching your browser to something like "Librewolf".
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Switching to a password manager like "Proton Pass" or "1Password".
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Encourage your close family to do the same once you're comfortable with the process.
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Switch social media to private alternatives.
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If you take any efforts to switch browser or install Aegis, try to use "F-droid", or even better, "Droidify". These being a FOSS app store, and a good Material alternative frontend. For apps not in here, consider "Aurora store", a more private **"Play store" **alternative
This is about it for me, quick posts from class, feel free to add into this topic bellow.
Edit:
Important additions after reading the comments:
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Proton is a bit disencouraged by some for some political views published by the CEO under proton's account and image. They backed down, and I believe it isn't something too bad as for users to leave such a good privacy oriented suite of apps. I encourage anyone who cares about this topic to research before making the switch.
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Mail is not 100% private with any option, and shouldn't be used for highly sensitive information. For that use end to end encrypted apps well respected, like "signal". Still is best to just don't send very sensitive information online.
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As a comment pointed, for a mail to be as private as possible, both the sender and reciever should have a private mail, otherwise you can be private but the other person would still be having your mail conversations stored under "gmail" or similar.
Sorry if this post didn't give the best newbie advice, I tried to track back some of my old knowledge, but I'll take more time to research the next time. Take care and stay private!