1---
 2title: "Stop Using Gmail"
 3description: Email was meant to be decentralised. Thanks, Google, for fucking that up.
 4date: 2020-02-20T01:09:10-05:00
 5draft: true
 6cover: /assets/pngs/gmail.png
 7toc: true
 8categories:
 9  - Technology
10tags:
11  - Email
12  - Privacy
13  - Decentralisation
14---
15
16Much like XMPP[^1], email was designed to be fully decentralised.
17Individuals can run servers for themselves and maybe some friends and
18family. As long as they have a public address, they can be contacted.
19
20## History
21
22## The fundamental problem
23First and foremost, over all else, Google is an advertising company;
24their entire business model depends on harvesting user data to more
25accurately serve you personalised ads. Emails sent and received with
26Gmail are stored unencrypted on Google's servers[^2]. This allows them
27to scan the text for keywords and extract data that can be used to build
28a detailed profile on you. If you've ever gotten an email from someone
29mentioning something about a mechanical keyboard and, a day or two
30later, you start seeing ads[^3] about them, that's why.
31
32This is generally pretty well-known and doesn't bother those who aren't
33really concerned with privacy. However, these people don't think about
34how their decision affects people who *do*. In choosing to remain with
35Gmail, they give it more and more power over the world of this
36distributed-by-design technology. *It is in Google's interest* to make
37it difficult for others to interact with the platform.
38
39Consider this. An individual decides he wants to run his own mail
40server. He sets everything up properly,
41[SPF,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sender_Policy_Framework)
42[DKIM,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DomainKeys_Identified_Mail)
43[DMARC,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMARC)
44[DANE,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS-based_Authentication_of_Named_Entities)
45etc., sets the website and webmail client up with
46[TLS,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security)
47implements some form of [email
48antivirus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clam_AntiVirus) and [spam
49filtration system,](https://www.rspamd.com/) basically uses all the
50standard components for a good email server. He tests it, it works, it's
51fast, and it's reliable. In his spam testing, his system gets a negative
52score[^4] and passes all the requirments with flying colours. He decides
53it's time to reconfigure his web applications to send mail using it
54rather than his domain registrar's servers. Everything works well for a
55bit, approximately two weeks.
56
57**Enter Google.**
58
59Sayonara sucker. The email giant decides that his services are sending
60spam and blocks the domain.
61
62[^1]: *XMPP* stands for the e*X*tensible *M*essaging & *P*resence
63    *P*rotocol. You can be more information about it in [NixNet's
64    documentation.](https://docs.nixnet.services/XMPP)
65[^2]: For more information on how insecure email is, [read
66    this](https://nixnet.email/docs/privacy-and-opsec/)
67[^3]: I recommend
68    [uBlockOrigin](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/)
69    for blocking ads
70[^4]: A positive score means emails from there are likely to be marked
71    as spam. A negative score is *good*.