this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Couldn't have put it in a better way

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] mypasswordis1234 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Everything computer-related is already my fault (since I am the only technical person in the house) so I do not care 😅

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Now that's relatable

[–] ooli 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's only for the free tier, and it's removable, just a little annoying cause you have to do it every time you write a mail.

[–] ooli 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I envy your patience if it is just a little annoying for you. I could send 2 mail before deleting the account I had just planned to be my new main email account

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I agree with you. If I weren't already paying for other services, I wouldn't be able to tolerate that.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

@ooli @mypasswordis1234 you can't remove it from your signature but you can remove it when composing an email.

[–] Coreidan 11 points 1 year ago

Why does it even matter? Let your mom use whatever email she wants.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

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

[–] cheese_greater 4 points 1 year ago

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

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)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

No, that's not going to end well

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] mypasswordis1234 5 points 1 year ago

Calm your tits

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Honeypot? Can you elaborate more on that?