Best free email service to use for hobbying?

[orlyo]

Any suggestions for which free service to use for a hobby email? Gmail, Yahoo, and the like read your emails for their ads, so I'm a bit wary about using them. I suppose as long as you sign up anonymously using a public wifi hotspot, it shouldn't matter, but I'm not sure. Any thoughts?

[Jannisary]

Well, as many times as some of my various Yahoo accounts have been hacked and compromised I would definitely NOT recommend them.

Any US based email is subject to subpena or search warrant but there are not a lot of good reliable alternatives either.

[redbeard42]

Hushmail is pretty popular I hear.

[ck1942]

Use an email provider that has ZERO connection to any of your RW mail accounts.

[Indirah.Raven]

I can suggest several secure free email services whose servers aren't on US soil. PM me for the complete list. Web Research and Internet Communications are my areas of expertise :-)

[ElisabethWhispers]

I used to pay for a hushmail account because the free one doesn't allow for many e-mails. But it can get rather wonky at times. And it works differently and is not user friendly.

I no longer use it. I also wish that there was a better e-mail provider for "us" to use.

My Elisabeth account is Hotmail and my personal one is gmail. I'm always concerned about the 2 getting connected.

Bothers me. Especially with the gmail.

[ck1942]

EW - if you are logging into your accounts only while you are live on line, little chance for the two accounts to be entwined or ensnared. So, avoid using email clients like Thunderbird or Outlook.

And, for best security, avoid using the same hardware device to access both accounts. Especially a handheld that uses only one browser

On a computer, for example, you can use, say IE or Chrome to access one account, and Firefox to access the other. I have reservations about Chrome, however, as that Google-owned browser seems to scoop up way too much data!

= = = = =

Just another thought on discrete emails, but it requires a bit of internet expertise to follow through.

For a very few dollars a month (but always be careful how you pay for this) you can always set up an overseas "website" and you can administer the site yourself and you can create your own email account(s) there.

You can both receive and send email from your account, and you can do so by logging in only on line and avoid any e-mail clients on your computer/handheld, thus limiting data on your hardware device(s).

If you keep your website simple, it is unlikely to be the target of would be hackers. otoh, the more widely your email address is broadcast, the more opportunities for hackers....

Here's the thing, while you may appear to be pretty much off the universal radar, your unique and special email address makes your outgoing email more likely to be vacuumed by spam filters thus making communications somewhat hit or miss until folks who you want to reach figure out you are legit.

Yes, a convoluted solution to a degree, but highly useful and a solution that many privacy-concerned and web savvy providers have been known to use. More than a few mongers, too.

[jjman1961]

Is it possible to receive an invitation to the social hour in Austin next week? Temptation Tammie told me about it last night. Hope this isn't an imposition.

[ronrocket]

Use webmail accounts that have no connection to you at all - no RW phone number, email, or personal information. If you need a backup account for emergency access, create two accounts and have each as the other's backup. Then use TOR to access your email so that your IP number is not traced to those accounts. If you want to go whole hog, use Tails as well. You can carry that around on a USB. Never use a regular browser.

[VegasJen]

I've been pretty happy with mail.com. They ask for no RW info and you can choose,your own domain name. I get a single weekly email from them with info and updates for their service. Thats it.

[gladius82]

Has anyone tried the Tor browser? It is supposed to be more secure yet not easily hacked and you can access yahoo email from it.

I used it on one of my laptops before it crashed. Now I have an old laptop that I only use for hobby related browsing.

[jframe2]

For clarification on this subject if I may, there are two different subjects being intertwined; use of a secure browser and encrypted email communication between parties.

If one is trying to be encrypted in their email communication, then look at Protonmail or add PGP use to your email Comm security protocols.

The use of a "safe, hack-proof or whatever you want to call it" browser or email account is not the same as encrypted communication between a sender and a receiver.

I have used TOR for years. But I know how to use it and what's strengths and weaknesses are. Anyone interested in TOR should do research past the basic comments by people of "it is secure and can't be hacked."

Not sure how OP's comments relate to accessing a Yahoo email account..... nothing really special pro or con about using TOR to access an email account. If the email account is hacked, it is hacked.

Every mail provider mentioned in this thread has Comm security weaknesses- physical location of servers, documented willingness to comply with lawful subpoena's, known and unknown hacks over the years.

To end ..... this world of ours is based on a "time-management assessment" by LEO or others.

Use common sense in Comm and access your particular level of required security, then do some research and see what tools/procedures are out there to use.

Coffee time...

Originally Posted by gladius82

Has anyone tried the Tor browser? It is supposed to be more secure yet not easily hacked and you can access yahoo email from it.

I used it on one of my laptops before it crashed. Now I have an old laptop that I only use for hobby related browsing.

[Unique_Carpenter]

To add,
Ignoring encryption, which folks should have available, perhaps even more so for civie business:
A date is a date. Unless something is said within the e-mail itself that might be incriminating, there's nothing that can be used.
There's so much traffic, there's no way 1984's big brother is tracking unless someone's already being watched, and then it's to late.
Note jframes comment on "time management" by inquiring minds (and machines).

Recapping, and agreeing with above comments: Yes, almost all internet mail outfits and browsers do try to track history (and obtain other e-mail accts) so never have more than one open at a time. And yes, alternate use of types of browsers.

Last, clear your browser history frequently. At the least just to keep internet trash from piling up. And, why does anyone want to keep old e-mails, civie or hobby?