Thanks for all of the replies! It seems I have a lot to learn and to research.
I guess what I consider sensitive, you all don't, so I'm relieved there. I never email financial statements, bank account numbers, SS numbers, etc.
I was more referring to the mere fact that, say if I use gmail, that they'll know I have an account at Schwab, Vanguard, XYZ bank, and what CCs I have when they send me the notices of transactions/available statements/bills paid.
Also, all three of my utilities email my bills with all of my info in a regular, readable form (name, address, account number, usage, and bill total) and I find it creepy that all of that will be added to my invisible data file(s). One even includes my PIN for online access (no I haven't been able to get them to change this!
) These are the things that bother me about, say, running everything through Gmail or Yahoo.
Establish your own domain name with a provider you trust and obtain your email through their mail servers. The cost should be under $100 per year.
Is there something in particular I should look for regarding the "a provider you trust" comment? I'm starting from scratch and will literally be searching for "how to establish my own domain name".
We never send "sensitive financial things" via standard email. Unencrypted emails can be grabbed, saved, and read by anyone with legal or illegal access to the multiple servers that any email travels through. Your endpoint ISP is probably the least of your worries.
If you want to see, open a command prompt and type: "tracert mail.google.com" without the quotes. This should give you a trace of the message path from your computer to google mail. I just did it and saw six stops between the point where my message first hit my ISP and its final point at Google.
(I'm not sure tracert is enabled by default on all computers, but you can at least try it.)
Yeah, my ISP is a regional company and we trust them more than, say, gmail, but as I said above, the super sensitive stuff is downloaded/uploaded directly and I'm more concerned with it being "in the wild" WHERE I have financial dealing and my detailed utility info.
When we move, we will no longer have access to their e-mail and will most likely end up with, say Comcast, or something. Big company/big data is my thinking, although, I know next to nothing.
I may try your example after I prepare myself for what I might see.
Having one's own domain name doesn't have any effect on message security. The domain name servers are simply instructed to route that domain's mail to your ISP. It's sort of like having a forwarding address at the post office.
The unencrypted messages are still zinging around the internet and available.
DW and I do have our own domain name, but not for security reasons.
So, I'd need my own domain AND my own server? Ah. So, the ISP is more of an issue (potentially) than the e-mail host?
I'm in IT and I use Gmail for everything. I do own my own vanity domain, but I trust Google more than I trust my ISP (MyHosting.com). My ISP doesn't even have two-factor authentication, but Google does. I do use SMS verification or an authenticator app when I can, but sometimes email is better than nothing. And as I mentioned, Google has access to my email, but even if you hosted your own email server, you'd have to trust other servers through which your email travels, and your own security wouldn't be as good as even a bargain basement ISP, much less Google or another big webmail host.
Trust Google with what? Security against hacking? I agree I prefer them over Yahoo. But what about data mining/selling? Isn't that how Google makes their money?
I had a domain name for many years with email and a web server in the basement. Itwas primarily for a family website with an online photo gallery. Then constantly updating the Linux servers became a PITA and I outsourced the hosting to a provider. Then that became a bit of a PITA and Flickr and Google Photos became more convenient than my self managed gallery, so I dumped the web site and the domain name. Gmail is my primary address for "important" stuff and friends these days. Flickr and Google Photos for the images. I keep a Yahoo email account for most commercial stuff. I figured a time was coming when I would screw up my personal domain and I wasn't doing anything much with my web site. Who do you turn something like that over too when you get old?
It definitely sounds like a hassle. I do like the idea of having our own domain for the continuity of e-mail addresses not being tied to our ISP, but since we have gmail and yahoo I guess those take care of that.
I have lots to read and digest. Thanks again, everyone!
