Gmail is the most popular email service provider. Of course, it proves to be a reliable solution to send/receive emails along with many useful features while providing a personalized experience.
However, for privacy-focused users and users who don’t want their data with the Big Tech giants, using Gmail may not be the best choice to go with.
In this article, I will be highlighting a few points that should encourage you to try secure email services and ditch Gmail for good.
5 Reasons to Stop Using Gmail
Note: This article aims to give you some compelling reasons to try some Gmail alternatives. I understand that it’s not easy to switch email accounts connected to various services.
Also, it’s important to note that Google’s paid G Suite service for enterprises and businesses focuses more on security and privacy compared to the free offering to consumers. It still may not be as private as some of the private email alternatives available, but it’s better than the free offering to consumers.
1. Google Skims Through Your Email
With Gmail, whenever you send or receive an email, Gmail scans the content of the message automatically and potentially utilizes it to improve the user experience for you.
Imagine one day you get notification on your phone that your flight is about to be board or some of your bills are due for today and then you wonder how come Google got this information?
If you’re someone aware about Google’s privacy policy, you probably already know that Google reads your emails and collects actionable data (and perhaps other kinds of data as well). But, many users who are non-techies, may not be aware of the fact at all.
Not just limited to the UX, but they also use the data to display relevant advertisements unless you haven’t opted out of personalized advertisements.
Of course, for some users, most of the emails may not be sensitive enough. But, it is generally a good practice to have banking, receipts, or insurance emails in a secure email service that respects your privacy.
Personally, I wouldn’t choose Gmail for that. However, don’t choose a small-scale email service that you’ve never heard before for banking, if you’re worried about reliability. You can choose an alternative from our list of private email service providers.
2. Break Away from Big Tech Giants
Even though I’ll admit that Google and other tech giants have done plenty good, I think you shouldn’t let the big corporate companies dictate your choice or collect your data.
You should at least try to give a chance to independent and passionate companies wanting to protect your privacy through innovative technology implementations.
Maybe, there’s something that offers a feature better than Gmail? Maybe you find something easier to use than Gmail? Maybe something that simply focuses on providing you a clean email experience without all the bloated features?
Not just for ditching Gmail, but in general, it is always refreshing to break away from big tech giants.
3. No End-to-End Encryption by Default
If you aim to send internal emails in a single network of email service (such as Gmail to Gmail or, Outlook to Outlook), Gmail does not provide you end-to-end encryption in those cases.
However, some private email services from our list do offer end-to-end encryption when you send an email within their platform.
In case you didn’t know, end-to-end encryption ensures that only you and the sender/receiver has access to the contents of an email. The email service provider cannot see that.
So, if you’re someone who wants the ability to send end-to-end encrypted emails within a single platform, it is a good reason to stop using Gmail.
4. Requires Personal Information for Sign Up
Gmail requires you to share your personal information, including your mobile number in order to sign up to their services.
If you want to send an email (maybe a sensitive tip to a news media), you can always ditch Gmail and sign up for private alternatives that do not ask for your personal information to access their services.
5. Big Attack Surface
An attack surface generally refers to “entry points for an attacker/hacker to target you“.
With Gmail, you have a ton of services connected to each other. So, that gives the attacker a variety of options to try compromising access to your email account.
For instance, you might receive a fake email that encourages you to act on your YouTube channel or something similar. Considering that your email is connected to multiple services, no matter how it is compromised, everything else is at risk as well.
But, if you utilize a different email service other than Gmail, you may have no connections to any other services using that account unless you explicitly use it for services you like.
In other words, other services may not be as popular as Gmail, so it’ll be less-prone to malicious attacks.
Privacy-friendly Alternatives to Gmail
Now that you know why you might want to ditch Gmail as your primary email service provider, let me mention a few alternatives that I’d want you to try in order to replace Gmail:
In addition to some of my favorites here, you can check out my complete list of secure email services tailored for privacy-conscious users.
What do you think?
Unquestionably, Gmail is a reliable and useful service. But, everything comes at a cost. If you need privacy, you will end up paying for the service if you need all the goodies.
And, on the other hand, Gmail is free to use with a bunch of features and a decent storage space for most, but collects users’ data and displays targeted advertisements.
What do you think about switching from Gmail to a private email service? Do you agree with the points I mention?
Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
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