Should I convince my mother to switch to ProtonMail?
Should I convince my mother to switch to ProtonMail?
Hey, My mother is a non-technical person, she's a sole trader. She has been using Google services for many years and is probably used to them. A few months ago, I was able to convince her to set up an online password manager and calendar (up until now, she had been saving all her passwords in a handy paper calendar).
Should I convince her to withdraw from Google services? If so, how should I do it so as not to put too much pressure on her?
Thanks for all the answers.
Forcing the older generation to change from a service that works perfectly fine to another one that isn't as polished and isn't a houshould name is a loosing battle.
I'd just bring up privacy concerns from time to time and suggest ways to increase their privacy when they ask for advice.
Unless there are some circumstances that switching will protect her then no. My opinion of course. I learned a long time ago that nontechnical people, young or old, need to value and want to use the tools or it will only cause frustration and less trust in your opinion on other things that may be more critical.
You can explain why something is better or worse but let them make their own choice without being pushed or they won't be invested in the change.
Couldn't have put it in a better way
Are you willing to support her on every single email related problem? There is a risk that everything that is not working will be your fault.
Everything computer-related is already my fault (since I am the only technical person in the house) so I do not care 😅
Now that's relatable
ProtonMail had a non removable signature ad at the end of every mail you write (could be a deal breaker), last time I checked.
Good luck trying to have her abandon Google anyway
@ooli @mypasswordis1234 you can't remove it from your signature but you can remove it when composing an email.
Why does it even matter? Let your mom use whatever email she wants.
i don't know if someone else mentioned it but another thing: probably all her friends use gmail and because an email always has a sender and a receiver, her privacy is out of the window regardless. I'd rather focus on getting her a browser with extensions to reduce how much she's being tracked
If you must, get her Fastmail. Anything else more complicated than that (it has an app like Proton) and you're going to be unpaid tech support for all time
have you thought about skiff mail? its open source and pretty easy to use (you also get 10gb on skiff drive for the free plan)
No, that's not going to end well
I think Infomaniak would give her a more similar experience to Gmail if you're in Europe. 20GB of mail storage + 15GB on KDrive, contact app, document editing, visio, file transfer, etc.
Are you going to pay for her account or do you also need to convince her to pay? It's gonna be a hard sell.
Also, the Android app is not very polished. I think she's going to have a hard time moving over if 1) she's not a technical person and 2) isn't willing to give up creature comforts for the sake of privacy.
I would say an online password manager is more of a risk than an IRL paper in a safe place. The best security is a locally stored password database with 2 factor.
I guess a honeypot is better than Google, but if it works for them you probably shouldn't touch it.
Also you took her passwords from being fully offline to hackable good job.
Calm your tits
Honeypot? Can you elaborate more on that?
Considering PM is basically a honeypot at this point (can't trust they're not monitoring with a gag order preventing warrant canary), I wouldn't recommend them even to my enemies.
Now that's an extreme statement. If your concern are the governments then you shouldn't even be using email in the first place, it wasn't built for private communication and all the attempts that were made to make it more private immediately fall apart when 90% of your contacts are sitting on Gmail.
Proton is good for what it is, i.e. not Google.
Who would you suggest otherwise?