Which email provider would you recommend ?

[HF2300]

What I'm saying is that I want a 'main account' that isn't linked to me.

Might be helpful for other members' information to describe why you want an anonymous main account and why you want rapid deletion of emails.

I suspect this would be un-necessary for most users and impractical for many or the opposite of what they'd want, given the discussion of historic and archive emails in this thread.

 

[ufkacbln]

This is the account I'm talking about. Is this linked to you? What I'm saying is that I want a 'main account' that isn't linked to me. And how did you set up your anonymous accounts without lying? And what mobile number did you use for them?

My main account is required to be linked to me for personal and professional reasons, but that still does not exclude you setting up an another

Simply do what I do and create an anonymous account on one of the above.

Use the account details as a name, it is not lying, the "owner" "Car Keys", Their DoB is when they became my posession, and I have an old phone card that came with a phone and has never been registered...... simples

@HF2300 I do not use mine for nefarious activities, it is for things like luggage or keys put your name or other details and they can be linked to you..... my keyring has the email address and mobile number. That way if you lose them they are recoverable, but you haven't got anything that identifies your bike, car or home address

 

[HF2300]

I tend to do a similar thing to @Crackle - POP (well, actually IMAP) from ISP via Thunderbird which, being IMAP, I can log into from any device / anywhere via the web, plus relatively throwaway and anonymous webmail for dealing with commercial entities who I don't really want to have my main email for privacy and spam reasons.

In my experience most ISPs will give you 5 - 10 email addresses which enable you to have extras for family, disposable one for sign-ups, and so on; many if not most seem to have gone to IMAP so can be accessed from any device; Yahoo seems to be pretty good for spam filtering but have become bad for random changes, account closures and the like; Hotmail is consistently spammy as hell which Microsoft seem unwilling or uninterested in doing anything about; Gmail has good usability and spam filters but they will maximise their use of your data so don't expect real, solid and total privacy (actually, probably don't expect that with most mainstream providers)

@Cunobelin I don't believe I suggested anyone was using anything for nefarious activities; I was interested in why @r04DiE specifically found such a depth of anonymity useful as I thought the input might be helpful in others' decisions.

 

[ufkacbln]

I

@Cunobelin I don't believe I suggested anyone was using anything for nefarious activities

I hadn't assumed that you had, it was simply explaining why I used them

 

[r04DiE]

Might be helpful for other members' information to describe why you want an anonymous main account and why you want rapid deletion of emails.

I'm just very privacy conscious, that's all. Things like the Investigatory Powers Bill, and the Snowden revelations make me want to be this way. I just think that we give way too much private data out for no reason. I went to Halfords recently, to buy something - anyway, the package had parts missing, so I returned it the same day to ask for an exchange. The first thing they asked me for was my address, and I refused to give it to them.

 

[r04DiE]

My main account is required to be linked to me for personal and professional reasons, but that still does not exclude you setting up an another.

I know, but I want my main account private.

Use the account details as a name, it is not lying, the "owner" "Car Keys", Their DoB is when they became my posession, and I have an old phone card that came with a phone and has never been registered...... simples

You are deluding yourself if you think this isn't lying. Not that it bothers me, Google aren't the most trustworthy bunch, so who cares if they get lied to? But you are lying. Car Keys isn't a person, they weren't born, and they don't use the mobile phone registered to them.

 

[ufkacbln]

I'm just very privacy conscious, that's all. Things like the Investigatory Powers Bill, and the Snowden revelations make me want to be this way. I just think that we give way too much private data out for no reason. I went to Halfords recently, to buy something - anyway, the package had parts missing, so I returned it the same day to ask for an exchange. The first thing they asked me for was my address, and I refused to give it to them.

There are sometimes valid reasons....

Buying something, using it and taking it back is not uncommon, as is using a stolen or cloned card to buy something, then return it to get cash.

A second identifier quickly sorts out some of these offenders

 

[ufkacbln]

I know, but I want my main account private.
You are deluding yourself if you think this isn't lying. Not that it bothers me, Google aren't the most trustworthy bunch, so who cares if they get lied to? But you are lying. Car Keys isn't a person, they weren't born, and they don't use the mobile phone registered to them.

It does not breach any of the terms and conditions.

There is actually no requirement to be a person!

Also there is the legitimate use for "Group Mailboxes" such as we used for a Charity group,

These are still "barriers" and "issues" that do not actually exist

 

[r04DiE]

There are sometimes valid reasons....

Buying something, using it and taking it back is not uncommon, as is using a stolen or cloned card to buy something, then return it to get cash.

A second identifier quickly sorts out some of these offenders

I was exchanging it. There was no reason at all for them to have my address.

 

[ufkacbln]

Another method is to use a masking application such as Blur which allows you to mask all your personal details

 

[r04DiE]

It does not breach any of the terms and conditions. There is actually no requirement to be a person!

Maybe not, but if you're pretending that a set of keys have a date of birth and a mobile, then that's not exactly true, is it?

 

[r04DiE]

Another method is to use a masking application such as Blur which allows you to mask all your personal details

I like that, but not as much as what I do.

EDIT: Anyway, We're derailing the thread - sorry, everybody. Maybe I'll start a privacy thread elsewhere.

 

[mybike]

The trend these days is for online mail, which is great for access but a bit shoot for long term storage. I have always used a POP email address as my main email, normally one from my ISP, though again, not all offer it now. POP delivers your mail locally which has the advantage of you being in charge of storing it and archiving it but the disadvantage of it only being on one device. I use online mail, such as gmail for throwaway stuff, shopping, newsletters and other unimportant crap. I configure my pop mail to remain on the server for a few days, so that I can use a third party android client to retrieve it away from my home PC. If I receive anything I need to access remotely i.e. a hotel booking or similiar, I simply transfer it to my gmail.

So my setup is: ISP provided POP mail sitting on a client on my PC, Thunderbird, and online mail, Gmail, which I can also configure Thunderbird to handle on my PC. On my phone I have access to gmail and use bluemail to pull down my ISP mail. On my PC, Thunderbird is backed up to my SAN and also online via MOZY.

Have you got all that Pubby or should I start again?

I'll add my vote. Pretty much what I do.

 

[Rezillo]

I'll add my vote. Pretty much what I do.

and me.

I configure my main email software on my home PC with 1 day's server retention, so that my mobile has access to recent email. Mobile is set to not delete mail on the server and automatically bcc's my address with anything I send with it so I get a copy to store on the PC.

Email has multiple backups which have proved their worth on more than one occasion. I create a specific address to use on sites that I suspect might sell my details on and if that address gets spammed, I delete it and create a new one.

 

[Dirk]

Maybe not, but if you're pretending that a set of keys have a date of birth and a mobile, then that's not exactly true, is it?

Is your real name actually 'r04DiE'?