I've had a several Proton Mail email addresses for a few years now but haven't used them for much, communication with specific individuals only, and never as my 'mainstream' email address. It's not as slick or polished as some of the others but it's secure, non-invasive, easy to use and quite controllable by the end user; they're features I value.
Recently, after Microsoft 365 forced their AI bullshit called copilot (I nicknamed it 'cuntpilot') upon me, which infuriated me, I decided to cancel my Microsoft 365 account completely. It was going to be annoying as it'd mean I'd have to change my email address everywhere that had it but I'd had enough of Microsoft 365 snooping my emails and calendar; enough was enough, I no longer wanted those Microsoft 365 assholes to be able to create a profile on me based on them crawling through my emails and calendar.
Here's a farewell email I didn't send to Microsoft but wanted to. 😜
Rather than use one of my existing Proton Mail accounts I decided to set up a new one and also decided to pay for it (my others are free) as the features and benefits for a paid account are far greater than the free accounts although, having said that, the free accounts are still reasonably good.
Proton Mail is encrypted, no one can see what's there but me, there's no trackers and advertisers shadowing my every move, it's advertisement free, is based in a country with some of the most strict privacy laws (Switzerland) and well, if you're interested you'll click the link above and check it out for yourself.
It's been working really well, and this time I've decided to split up my email addresses to various different ones each with a specific use; they all feed to the one inbox but I've set rules for each and they split off to various folders tagged with different labels and colours so are easily identifiable. Granted, it's nothing fancy but that's ok, neither am I. It's laid out well though, has good functionality and is devoid of the nutbaggery other email providers force upon their users. I particularly like their dark web monitoring feature and alias emails which work the same as an email but masks the actual email address identity reducing the potential for spam and keeping my actual email addresses private. There's also a VPN and password manager among other features.
I'll admit that it's been super annoying to change my email address all over the place especially since many have convoluted security features and hoops to jump through, but I've got it all done other than a few that aren't all that important. I was committed to it though, I was furious about that copilot AI thing and simply fed up with the general bullshit Microsoft 365 offered. Google, Yahoo and all those others do it too. Considering I pay the same for my Proton Mail account as I did for the Microsoft 365 account it was a no-brainer.
Am I going to miss MSWord and Excel? Hmm, yeah probably a little, but I have been using LibreOffice and, whilst not very sexy compared to the MS Suite, it has what I need and it's been working really well. I can't get away from Microsoft at work as it's used for many applications, but in my personal life I chose to go through a little pain for what I see as the greater good.
If you want to tell me about your thoughts and opinions, or your own story of protecting your online and personal security email me at fuckoffmicrosoft365@proton.me and let me know...Ok, not really.
Instead, feel free to comment below. How do you feel about corporations having a personal profile of you and your life created by Microsoft, Google and the others? Are you fed up with spam and trackers, being marketed to, influenced and pushed in particular directions based on your emails, calendar entries and other online behaviours? Tell me about it, have a fucken rant (you deserve it) or make any comments you'd like.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
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Image(s) in this post are my own