Yeah sorry, I answered to the wrong comment :-).

But still, I have this feeling that many people who would be competent to own their domain just don't do it. And they could give an email to their family, too. And help friends setup theirs.

I'm not completely sure that the issue is "it's too hard". To me, it's like password managers. Sure, it's too hard for some people. But most people just can't be arsed to use a password manager, though they would be totally competent.

"It's too hard" is, in my experience, often an excuse to be lazy.

For the average person, the benefits of having your own email domain are not very weighty compared to the risks, complexities, spent social capital, and inconvenience of having one.

For most people, if they want or need to switch email providers they will simply sign up for a new service, give people their new address, and move on with their life.

This whole conversation is a lot to do about something that the average joe just doesn't give a shit about. It isn't laziness. It really isn't that important of a life task for most. It's an appropriate prioritization of tasks under a lifestyle different than yours.

I agree that most people don't care, and probably don't have the energy and time to care, and that's mostly fine. That is, until Google decides to arbitrarily close their account, with no recourse. Sure, over the number of people who use GMail, only a tiny percentage experience this, but it still sucks. And in that case people are usually more upset that they've lost their photos, docs, etc. than their email.

I don't really see an actual problem here, unlike some others commenting, but it is a general shame to me that more people don't have their own email domain. It would make the world more... colorful... somehow, even if in just a small way.

Agreed, of the things people keep in their Google account, the email address is probably the least valuable to them.

> For the average person, the benefits of having your own email domain are not very weighty compared to the risks, complexities, spent social capital, and inconvenience of having one.

I honestly think that most people don't know why it matters. 20 years ago I was happy (and proud) to have gmail, and didn't see a point in having my domain. Until I chose to move away from gmail, and then it all made sense.

I have an example: many (most?) universities give you an alumni email when you graduate. Some offer actual hosting, but others just ask you to redirect. It is free, and for many universities, graduates would trust their university more than gmail, right? And it wouldn't lock them into gmail. Still, none of my friends from university use it. Most use gmail instead.

Now tell them: "Look, if you use gmail, then Google can read all your emails. You didn't give a shit 4 months ago ("I have nothing to hide"), but now you've heard of random Canadians and Europeans getting deported or declined entry in the US for random reasons, including one who wrote stuff against Trump. How do you feel about the US reading you emails and deciding whether they should deport you or not based on that? If you controlled a domain, you could move away from gmail. Now you can't. Also know that if they can read your emails, it means that they know the flights/hotels/trips you booked, whatever you bought online, and they can just access all your accounts everywhere."

What will they think? "If I was to do it again, I would still use gmail" or "Would actually be nicer if I had been using my alumnus email all along"?

> now you've heard of random Canadians and Europeans getting deported or declined entry in the US for random reasons, including one who wrote stuff against Trump

This doesn't happen because people are using gmail. It happens when people post things on social media or get searched at border crossings.

It happens for random, unjustified reasons. Wouldn't you want to protect your data from a country that behaves like that? I sure would.

Not using gmail doesn't solve that. If you cross a border you can have your device searched and denied entry if you don't cooperate. If you post on social media, the data is in plaintext for the world to see.

Are you trying to say that you don't need privacy because what you say publicly is public?

I'm not following.

If you say things publicly you have already chosen not to have privacy with regard to those statements.

Sure. And if you say things privately you have chosen to have privacy. Which is very limited if you say your private things on a US service and don't feel like having the US randomly read them and deport you.

That was my point, I'm happy to see that we agree :-).

You are misinformed as to the circumstances of the above stories you cited, because that isn't what happened in those situations.