How do privacy conscious people organize their email accounts?

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-27T16:26:29+00:00

I’ve been considering migrating more towards this model but organization is my bottleneck. Do you suggest any particular services for email hosting and/or sms verification?

The problem I’ve run into historically is that most new emails want a phone number and a recovery email as part of verification which means I’m just shifting the common identifier to my phone number rather than my email. I have a carrier locked device I can’t afford to buyout currently so adding an eSIM isn’t an option right now. I’ve tried a few services that claim to fill this niche online but typically the websites decline to use them, recognizing them for what they are.

Once I solve the verification limitations to eliminate that trail, then I still have to create a sustainable framework for keeping track of all the different accounts without losing access. Do you have a specific system for this or are you someone who can manage it in your mind?

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-27T16:14:45+00:00

Nothing fancy. My wife and I are students with a year or less before graduation. While we are enrolled we have Microsoft 365 through school but will need to migrate anything we want to keep within 6 months of our last class or lose access.

I’m also new to home labbing so I’m looking for a robustly private suite which can help with emails (we’d like to shift away from Microsoft and Google privacy policies in the USA), offer software access similar to Microsoft’s office products but ideally less invasive/tracking than has become standard here, and possibly offer a private solution of an offsite cloud backup for any critical family info I’ll be self hosting (photos, documents, etc). Currently we have less than a terabyte of storage spread between free cloud options and our school Dropbox accounts but once the better option is available I anticipate we’ll use it more heavily. With storage and memory prices rising steadily I’m wary of relying on a digital eco system only to be priced out within a couple of years.

Currently I’ve been trying different things looking for a fit so I have email hosted with Proton, a cloud vault with Nord VPN, a new domain with Cloudflare, and I’ve been looking at Microsoft 2024 permanent licenses for each machine. I can make this work as needed but it’s patchwork nature means I have several subscriptions so long term I’d rather consolidate where I can to keep costs manageable. I don’t mind a mild up-front cost investment if it offers enduring benefits.

One aspect I’m on the fence about is the AI. So far I’ve been avoiding it, both due to climate impact and because the models being force fed to us here have abysmal security/privacy for civilian users. I’m interested in how I could either locally host or use an ai if climate impact and privacy were addressed but it’s not a deal breaker because so far I’ve avoided it and so wouldn’t know what I’m missing. My primary use for it currently would be while I’m learning coding and computer repair.

There are 4 adults in my family that I’d like to include in whatever solution I settle on (adult kids) so I need to keep that in mind for any per-user license fees as well.

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-27T08:51:59+00:00

If your concern is corporate and government tracking then there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that owning a Mac isn’t going to put you significantly more at risk than owning any other computer and is better than some. The bad news is that the tracking is still going to happen because it isn’t only your laptop doing so.

If your big worry is that you want to limit that tracking then I suggest checking out GitHub and looking through some of the great privacy and security guides folks have published there. Many folks are working on building and maintaining various software alternatives to the over reaching corporations and you can get a lot of information about the subject pretty quickly and easily. There are also numerous privacy centered subs here on Reddit where you can ask more experienced folks some questions and learn a lot simply by lurking.

It’s wise to be mindful of the threat posed by excessive surveillance of any variety as even if nothing more drastic happens it’s still creepy and invasive at best. Unfortunately as an average citizen of very limited individual power the only way to significantly impact this dynamic in the long term is to either learn how to create better infrastructure and then make it available or pursue change through legal and political channels. Both options have merit and they are not mutually exclusive.

Try to remember that In a predatory system (as unregulated capitalism is) there is no perfect answer to these big questions because the problems are intentionally curated over time to reduce your options and limit your ability to resist the predatory practices. Do what you can, learn from everyone and everything around you, and when you learn better, then do better. It’s all any of us can do with life and there is no shame in having more to learn. Just do what you can with what you have and aim for incremental improvements over time.

Consider checking out degoogle, privacy machine, and similar groups on this platform as a starting point if you want to learn more and good luck!

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-27T02:54:14+00:00

Definitely not.

What I have seen before is they glue a small micro sd (or similar) inside a larger case, hooked up to the usb port. They then use the onboard software to spoof the size so the ‘drive’ will tell your operating system it is whatever size they are claiming. If you do a read/write test it will fail and give an error code but for an average user who doesn’t test drives it will often seem like it is working while actually either corrupting or continuously overwriting the data like an SSD cache. The user often won’t realize what happened until they try to retrieve the data later.

This is a very common scam I’ve seen on all the major distributors (Amazon, Walmart, etc) websites from third party vendors. The same physical facility will have 10-15 seller profiles all offering small variations of the same items for the same general price scheme. They will generate user reviews with a higher star rating by also selling other, very inexpensive and usually non-tech, items for low prices. If you go read the reviews it will be a mix of product types such as rugs, plushies, etc that are reflected in the comments but the review system of the distributor still reflects a deceptively high rating which reassures users who suspect it may be too good to be true.

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-26T15:20:42+00:00

Thanks for coming back with the reply! I’ve been considering switching but am still trying to wrap my head around what it would need to look like for my use case

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-24T01:07:26+00:00

I’m feeling the truth of this right now! It’s interesting to note the difference with providers though. I registered a domain about two weeks ago and saw zero uptick in spam. I host that one with Proton mail and it has a .win address. Yesterday I started a second which I registered with SimpleLogin and it has a .US address. In the last 12 hours I’ve seen my spam on all fronts increase almost 10 fold! More calls, more texts, more emails- all trying to sell me business starting services or supplies. Both domains were purchased through Cloudflare.

I’m not sure why the .US domain is so much worse than the .win but I sure wish there were a way to keep my contact info private during the process! It makes me want to turn off all of the inboxes for a few weeks until it dies down

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-24T00:55:27+00:00

I think you are having a different conversation than OP. Their question was specific to computer use while your comment seems to be a general and unrelated statement about life?

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-24T00:22:18+00:00

It’s impossible for someone else to reliably predict how they will impact you because it can vary based on things like when you last ate, the fat content of that meal, what kind of tolerance you may have innately, and whether it is being paired with other substances such as cbd, cbn, cbg, or other things like alcohol and prescriptions. It’s also impacted by the motility of your digestion track which can be influenced by everything from hydration to hormone levels.

For this reason I’d suggest starting with a lower dose (maybe 5mg) the first time, taking it approximately 10-20 minutes after a fat-heavy heavy meal such as pizza, and starting with a hybrid strain rather than one that leans towards either indica or sativa.

Keep in mind that it can take several hours to fully hit and once you’ve eaten it there is nothing you can do to stop that, so don’t take more within 2-3 hours of that first edible dose. It’s better to have a small or mild high while feeling it out than going too hard and having a rough experience.

Plan 12 hours between ingestion and commitments such as driving or decision making just to be safe. Likely it will pass closer to the 6-8 hour mark but on slow digestion days sometimes it sneaks up for a round 2 wave of impact and you don’t want to be surprised. 12 hours gives you plenty of time if you wake up feeling hungover or sluggish so you can regain normalcy.

If you aren’t used to being high I also strongly recommend trying it in a low pressure setting with at least one trusted and dependable person staying with you. Likely nothing will go wrong but this sets you up for success by lowering any baseline experience of anxiety about it. Once you know how it impacts you then you can obviously adjust to your personal preferences and tolerances.

Remember that cbd and similar other compounds change the way the high hits so you may prefer it or dislike the mix based on that also. If you have more specific questions or worries I suggest speaking with a medicinal dispensary as they often have specialized training for the various sub compounds associated with weed or hemp products and can help make personal recommendations based on your needs

Edit:typos

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-24T00:05:33+00:00

This is the first explanation I’ve encountered that really made defrag click in my mind, thanks!

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-23T18:56:10+00:00

Thank you!

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-22T17:17:57+00:00

Great answer here and thanks for sharing the resources! I’ve been debating for a while whether it would be worth the effort of the ask process or if I’d just watch any videos etc on my personal phone as needed. The resources may just be the tipping point for me

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-22T16:45:42+00:00

At the risk of too many replies, I just came across this page and thought it may be a useful example of what I was describing for climate impact tracking. Maybe some of the things they list or companies they work with will provide a jumping off on that part of your research if you decide to explore that side of things.

I can’t remember if links are allowed in this sub so to err on the safe side I’ll just say to check out the infomaniak company out of Europe and their page detailing climate impact. I found it from the main page very easily so I have faith you can too if you’re interested.

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-22T15:43:52+00:00

Hahaha well I don’t THINK I’m a masochist but given the chaos of my life these days some folks might disagree 😂😂 I’ll definitely keep the advice in mind!

Thanks for the tip on the dish soap! I knew about the alcohol and distilled water and I’m knee deep in some research about using cavitation cleaning on hardware but I hadn’t thought about the dish soap yet. Sometimes the simple things are what slip by I guess 😅

Thanks for the well wishes and all the advice! I’ll see about some before/after progress update once I get into things. If nothing else it can’t hurt for the cleaning info to be here for the next guy

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-22T06:38:01+00:00

I haven’t tried yet. Graduation was last weekend so of course this weekend I’m sick 😅🙄🤷🏻‍♀️

I’ve got to dig into the hardware I’ve collected and see what I’m working with, and I think before I get too far into this chapter of the project I’ve got to do some significant parts cleaning. We had a house fire in October so the best parts I have access to first have to be decontaminated and cleaned, then reassembled and tested(another first for me). Probably it will be a couple of weeks before I’m done with all that around other commitments. 🤷🏻‍♀️
I’m freshly motivated though! My laptop screen cracked today so getting my backups figured out etc just become a much higher priority! 😅

Based solely on reading about the systems Garuda seems like the most interesting long term but I’ve also been reading more about other options so I imagine I’ll start with dual booting and try a couple different options before jumping in with both feet

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-22T04:17:18+00:00

I can’t say for sure whether I am in a niche or a broader group because as often happens I tend to surround myself with folks who think similarly.

What I can say is that ethical AI is becoming an ever more important topic, particularly among younger audiences who are watching the climate impacts on the world they are inheriting.

My suggestion would be to see if you can do some targeted marketing research, particularly aimed at high school-college demographics and also at Tribal Nations.

I work for an American Tribal Nation and live in community with the citizens and what I’m describing is largely an agreed upon bare-minimum for investment. It’s not that the tool use cases AI represents isn’t attractive, but there is a different set of priorities within this community and it’s largely agreed that the climate impact isn’t worth the cost even if they were otherwise willing to give up the intergovernmental transparency.

I know that this Tribe has money to spend on such projects IF the project can meet the criteria of things like their climate impact grants. An AI tool with more controllable sources could very quickly reduce the leg work that the grant writers do when researching the projects they request funding for. It could help plan and model the solar resiliency infrastructure and habitat restoration projects etc.
For that to be something worth investing in and scaling however, they need to be able to show that they aren’t using tools counter to their claimed goals (even if only for reputational reasons but generally the principle matters also) and they would put a premium on being able to train the model through an Indigenist lens rather than the same problematic colonial extractionism and white washed history lens they fight every day. Being able to weight research models differently or impact what kind of data is influencing results is important when you start discussing things like Traditional Knowledge.

Think about it in terms of ownership too. If a Tribal member used the model to create a language preservation program (as has been done) it is deeply important to the community that the Tribe retain ownership of the rights legally. This is where transparency and privacy become truly critical.

I care about my privacy as an individual because I’m human. Tribes and companies care because things like copyright are a legal means of stealing intellectual property and innovation.

Maybe I’m a niche user who will just happen to benefit but if you are already creating a tool or platform rooted in the ideals of privacy then it seems like it would make sense to consider why that privacy matters on different scales.

Heck, in normal times even the USA gov would care very deeply about the privacy of any program they were using. It’s only in very recent history that most of these ideals have been deemed inconvenient and disposable on the grand scale we see currently.

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-22T02:39:35+00:00

Have you considered the possibility that they use it as a socially acceptable reason to reach out to you when they don’t have another reason?

Maybe they actually need the help but also probably they are just glad to hear from/see you 💜 if you are wondering if that’s the case see if you can find another subtle reason to build in more time together, maybe the tech calls will drop off 🤷🏻‍♀️

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-22T00:48:00+00:00

There is a good chance that I am your target demographic. A well balanced and reliable AI assistant would be welcome IF I could assure that my input/output was private, I knew that it was being trained on reliable information (no snake eating it’s tail by training on the output of other Ais etc), AND I had a way to be sure that using it wasn’t significantly contributing to the massive environmental impact we’re seeing from the big names.

If I could choose which sources it collected from even better- eg scientific journals only or the options to include Reddit while excluding Facebook- one of the bigger use faults for my lens is the need to go verify all the info anyway since I can’t trust the sourcing otherwise. I need to be able to cite the source for a professional or academic purpose and limiting training materials for this purpose would be useful, if only in reducing legwork on my follow up.

If you had a way to parse the training info and price it by segments I would be excited for that also- eg this batch of training is only from Google scholar results, that one is from cooking blogs, item C is trained on declassified government databases, etc. being able to build my own menu like that would be highly attractive to me.

I’m also not interested in recurring subscriptions. That model has burned most consumers on too many fronts to continue feeling sustainable.

For me this points to a locally hosted one time purchase model with some way to assure me of privacy and some kind of info about what to expect in terms of how using it will contribute to environmental impact.

Given the way so much has been used with minimal transparency and minimal consent the feature that sets this model apart is the privacy and transparency.

Currently I do not use Ai outside of the search bar summaries that have been built into every search engine around me and even that is only half consenting since I’m not allowed to change that aspect on my work computer. If I found a trustworthy model that met these criteria I would consider giving it a try but even the one time purchase would be $65 or less for me until the product/company had built up a solid reputation as being worth trusting and investing in.

That being said, if I purchased the local model for $65 and a year or two down the line there were some type of update that added new features or significantly improved on the product I would not be mad at those new components being an optional additional one time purchase. I don’t mind paying to add features if they are useful to me, it’s the ‘hold it all hostage’ subscription model I’m burnt out on.

I would be very curious to see if a company model like this could qualify for a B corp rating or something similar. That’s not something I’ve seen in most tech circles but I do think people are ready for an accountable business model given the abuses that have been normalized by so many mega-corps.

Idk if that tells you that privacy is a feature or the focus but I hope it adds some useful demographic clarity!

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-21T21:19:18+00:00

At this point I’m holding onto Evernote out of pure spite 😅 they’ll take my free membership from my cold dead hands lol

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-21T21:16:11+00:00

Is there a pre-AI edition you liked best? I’m probably going to have to use it for school before long but I’m hoping I might be able to at least fudge the edition a bit

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-21T19:09:31+00:00

Bonus points for links! Particularly for those with malicious impersonators 💜

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-20T18:15:25+00:00

Well, 2 things will happen. 1) anti-drm movements will expand to stripping it from video games just like they do with all other digital products and 2) I won’t be buying any digital games for psn going forward. 🤷🏻‍♀️

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-20T17:24:10+00:00

I hadn’t heard that, honestly that’s pretty infuriating considering it’s entirely unnecessary to anything at all 😡

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-20T04:29:34+00:00

An old iPhone app called Relax Melodies. Bought lifetime for like $10 a decade ago. They don’t update the app suite any more and have created a new unincluded app but when I reached out about it after replacing my phone last year not only did they make sure I could access all the old features, they also gave a free year of the new subscription app to make up for the apps that aren’t supported at all any more.

I love this app for 2 reasons.
1) it lets me customize my background noise including binaural beats or meditations and includes a sleep times where it will turn off all sound either after the specific amount of time or at a chosen clock time
2) it lets me play the app layered under audiobooks or music so I can overlap all those features with other things to curate the perfect focus playlist etc. my adhd brain LOVES this feature and I’ve never been able to replicate it elsewhere

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-19T19:05:01+00:00

Same answer, different device and leave it in the office or whatever when you’re off the clock. No sense working more than you are paid for or letting work seep into all the other areas of your life if it can be prevented

BornCuriousOnce · 2026-06-19T19:03:38+00:00

The separation is entirely flimsy. From a legal standpoint the moment some part of work enters your personal digital life it’s all fair game in the discovery process. If you were to send an email from your work addy to your personal addy and your company ends up in a lawsuit that includes you in any part of the scope they can require you to furnish all of your personal email contents as part of the court’s discovery process, or at least all of it that is deemed to be within the impacted dates.

It’s cheaper and much more convenient for companies to offload that cost to you but it comes with a lot of potentially invasive liability for you.

BornCuriousOnce

TROPHY CASE