Suggestions for webmail providers. I'm trying to leave AOL & Yahoo

[SCoastclamdigger]

I want to stop $upporting the propaganda machines AOL(HuffPo) and Yahoo News by not adding hits to their sites with my email traffic or profit by selling my address to marketers.  I'm also trying minimize my use of Gmail, because of Google's harvesting of personal data to target ads, their blocking conservative news sites in their news menu and their cozy relationship with the govt.  GMX.com aka mail.com seems just as bad with their slant on news stories.

As much as I loved Ronnie,..**Reagan.com is a no go**.  I don't wish to reveal my political leanings every time I give out my email address and I don't want to pay $40 yearly. I tried Yippy.com but their email is clunky, takes too long to refresh and I'm pretty sure some of my emails aren't getting to me.

I have different email addresses for different purposes (political, shopping, personal, financial etc) this way I can view a certain types of mail when I choose and I think it makes it more difficult for marketers to get a complete profile.
Recently I've moved to Yandex.com for my political stuff (yes I know they're Russian)...feel free to tell/ flame me why this is a good or bad idea.  Their setup seems decent and email service has been good, but I don't want to send banking & financial stuff there.

I don't how much Microsoft (with outlook and hotmail) and Apple (with iCloud mail & storage) support political causes against my own.
Please chime in regarding them.
Anyone try Zoho or Fastmail? or any others??? Some on this list look interesting
http://email.about.com/od/freeemailreviews/tp/free_email.01.htm

**Please post your suggestions and rationale. thank you.**


Here's my criteria;
>I'd prefer free, but I might pay a little (say $10/year) if I was getting something else besides email for my money.
>I want fast and secure because my banking, billing and cc data will be going there.
>I'd prefer offshore, so it's harder for the gov to track in case of a shtf situation and we fall into complete tyranny.
>I don't want my email address to expire if I choose to not log in every 90 days.
>I don't mind ads so long as they aren't scanning my mail to target specific ones to me.... and not sending me an avalanche of spam.

[dutch508]

I 

and a bitchslap.

[Eupher]

It's pretty interesting that this thread has magically wormed its way up from the depths of CC. I was just going to post another thread on this very issue, though my expertise is not nearly what it is with the OP.

Also, the information he posted is probably fairly dated.

Anyway, I've had a Yahoo email account that I've used pretty much exclusively for the past 8-9 years or so. Things were humming along quite well, no issues or problems, until some schmuck hacked me about 2 months ago and sent out some bullshit link to everyone in my Yahoo address book.

None of that was horribly harmful, and I changed my password, etc., when I discovered this morning that I'd been hacked again, this time from some shitstain in Brazil. Same deal. Change my password, etc.

Here's the drill:

1.  I need an online email service and I don't mind paying some money for it -- within reason. I need it online because I need to be able to access my email, contacts, etc., wherever I might happen to be. And I don't do smartphones, so that's not an issue. Phones are meant to be used to speak on, not to send email all over the frickin' planet. But I digress....

2.  Obviously, security is a concern.

3.  While Yahoo's bullshit political leanings are irksome, they don't push my buttons all that much.

4.  Changing my email address would be an enormous PITA after so many years using the same one, but I'm not too married to it to flush it if necessary.

Would be interested in hearing thoughts and ideas....updated since the OP, of course.

TIA.

[J P Sousa]

I use Gmail, everybody that offers FREE does it for a reason.

I tried using yahoo but it complains about "cookies".   

[EagleKeeper]

I'm not sure why my sarcasm meter is twitching?

This is a problem that I am guilty of. My sarcasm and humor can be difficult to detect and it gets me into trouble. 

I don't trust the OP but I'm not sure what Euph is getting at either.

[Eupher]

I'm not sure why my sarcasm meter is twitching?

This is a problem that I am guilty of. My sarcasm and humor can be difficult to detect and it gets me into trouble. 

I don't trust the OP but I'm not sure what Euph is getting at either.

Dunno about your sarcasm meter - mine's completely dormant at the moment.

I'm dead solid serious about this.

I'm looking for an alternative email browser other than Outlook Express, Outlook, Firefox Thunderbird, Gmail, Yahoo, for the reasons stated in the OP.

Updated information, if you will.

For years I've done my email online because I need/want to have my email in one place, not scattered over 2-3 computers. The problem with that is the shitstain hackers who get into your address book and send shit out to everybody in it -- usually malware or a virus of some type.

I'm collecting information/options as to what to use to minimize exposure to hackers so they can keep the hell out of my email. Real simple.

Is the OP AFU? Am I spinning my wheels referring to this 3-year old information? Hell, I'll start another thread if that's what's throwing you for a loop, EK.

[EagleKeeper]

Ok..

The question that you are asking is more complicated then many might think.

The short answer is that the "email browser"(and by email browser you mean a web browser with the exception of Outlook) that you are using doesn't really matter. It's not the browser that is getting hacked, it's your computer and about 95% of the time it is self inflicted.

When you think about it, what is the point of and methodology of, hacking pc's?

Again, the short answer is, as a hacker I am trying to develop a botnet or a large number of individual computers that are running a bit of code that I choose and there are 2 ways that I could go about that.

1) I could find your pc on the Internet, spend the time to fingerprint your system and then exploit it.

2) I could exploit 1 system and then spam the recipients in your contact list with a link to my malware and let them infect themselves.

Point 2 is fire and forget, I just watch the nascar race and wait as compromised pc's check in with my server and goes back to my point about self infliction. A web browser does not care nor does it check if a link in the email is malicious.

The overall point I am trying to make is that the "email browser" that you use does not matter, what does matter is system security and browsing habits.

If you are using Windows it's even more important that you pay attention to system security (windows update, antivirus update) because everybody and their little hacker brothers are trying to compromise Windows machines.


Oh I forgot to mention I use Yahoo and Outlook.com.

[Freeper]

It's pretty interesting that this thread has magically wormed its way up from the depths of CC. I was just going to post another thread on this very issue, though my expertise is not nearly what it is with the OP.

Also, the information he posted is probably fairly dated.

Anyway, I've had a Yahoo email account that I've used pretty much exclusively for the past 8-9 years or so. Things were humming along quite well, no issues or problems, until some schmuck hacked me about 2 months ago and sent out some bullshit link to everyone in my Yahoo address book.

None of that was horribly harmful, and I changed my password, etc., when I discovered this morning that I'd been hacked again, this time from some shitstain in Brazil. Same deal. Change my password, etc.

Here's the drill:

1.  I need an online email service and I don't mind paying some money for it -- within reason. I need it online because I need to be able to access my email, contacts, etc., wherever I might happen to be. And I don't do smartphones, so that's not an issue. Phones are meant to be used to speak on, not to send email all over the frickin' planet. But I digress....

2.  Obviously, security is a concern.

3.  While Yahoo's bullshit political leanings are irksome, they don't push my buttons all that much.

4.  Changing my email address would be an enormous PITA after so many years using the same one, but I'm not too married to it to flush it if necessary.

Would be interested in hearing thoughts and ideas....updated since the OP, of course.

TIA.

I got hacked over night. Had a ton of failed receipt messages, apparently there are a few email addresses in my contacts that are no longer being used, I've had the thing for probably close to ten years. I also have my address listed as a contact, comes in handy when I need to email something from one device to another, also when I get hacked I get a copy of whatever email is getting sent out.

[Eupher]

Ok..

The question that you are asking is more complicated then many might think.

The short answer is that the "email browser"(and by email browser you mean a web browser with the exception of Outlook) that you are using doesn't really matter. It's not the browser that is getting hacked, it's your computer and about 95% of the time it is self inflicted.

When you think about it, what is the point of and methodology of, hacking pc's?

Again, the short answer is, as a hacker I am trying to develop a botnet or a large number of individual computers that are running a bit of code that I choose and there are 2 ways that I could go about that.

1) I could find your pc on the Internet, spend the time to fingerprint your system and then exploit it.

2) I could exploit 1 system and then spam the recipients in your contact list with a link to my malware and let them infect themselves.

Point 2 is fire and forget, I just watch the nascar race and wait as compromised pc's check in with my server and goes back to my point about self infliction. A web browser does not care nor does it check if a link in the email is malicious.

The overall point I am trying to make is that the "email browser" that you use does not matter, what does matter is system security and browsing habits.

If you are using Windows it's even more important that you pay attention to system security (windows update, antivirus update) because everybody and their little hacker brothers are trying to compromise Windows machines.

Oh I forgot to mention I use Yahoo and Outlook.com.

Okay, I see your point about the email browser. I guess, more than anything, it's merely a source of contacts for exploitation. Since my contact list is on the web, it's easier, I guess, for the hacker to access them.

Or is that not the case?

What is "outlook.com?" Or do you mean you use Yahoo and then download your email from Yahoo to MS Outlook?

As far as system updates, I keep up on that -- or rather, I allow Windows to keep up with that. It does its thing and I wake up in the morning to a downloaded, refreshed and rebooted machine. With malware, I regularly run Malwarebytes (and caught three of the nasty little critters yesterday), Spybot (which I'd forgotten about  ) and for awhile till just recently, I ran ESET against viruses. Now it's just the basic Avast.

Probably need to just change my email password more often than I do.