I’ve been using my Gmail account for a long time, and moving to another email provider feels like a lot of work. However, I’m becoming more concerned about my online privacy and how much Google knows about my habits. I’m curious if there are effective measures I can take to enhance the privacy of my current Gmail account without completely letting it go.
Nowadays, I don’t get many personal emails on that account, so I thought about setting up a new email with another service and then forwarding messages from my Gmail. This way, I won’t miss important emails that still go to my old account.
One thing that’s making me hesitant to leave Gmail is hearing that it has great deliverability. I’ve been told that emails I send from Gmail rarely go to people’s spam folders. Is that really the case or am I worrying too much about this?
Your forwarding plan is smart for transitioning. While you’re still on Gmail, turn on two-factor auth if you haven’t, check what apps have access and dump the ones you don’t need, and use a privacy browser with tracking protection. You can also tweak Google’s activity settings to cut down data collection without killing the account. On deliverability - yeah, Gmail’s got solid reputation, but ProtonMail and Fastmail deliver just as well these days. Your sending habits matter way more than which provider you pick anyway. I’d move important contacts to your new address slowly over a few months instead of all at once.
Been there a few years ago and stuck with Gmail but locked it down hard. Game changer was using app-specific passwords instead of giving third-party services full access, plus regularly cleaning out my Google account permissions. The privacy settings actually let you block tons of data collection if you dig around. I kept Gmail as backup for exactly that reason - deliverability is unmatched, especially for business stuff. But slowly moved personal emails to a privacy-focused provider. Took about six months and wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it’d be.
honestly, i think you’re overthinking the deliverability. i’ve used ProtonMail for over 2 years and never had issues with emails going to spam. plus, ur forwarding idea is solid; it helps keep the important emails in check while u switch things up!