42

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.

all 35 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Boring@lemmy.ml 57 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] Xyz@infosec.pub 35 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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.

[-] lemmy_nightmare@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Couldn't have put it in a better way

[-] lud@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago

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@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

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

[-] miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago

Now that's relatable

[-] ooli@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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

[-] nitneroc@lemmy.one 15 points 1 year ago

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@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

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

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

[-] Arbitter@mastodon-belgium.be 5 points 1 year ago

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

[-] Coreidan@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

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

[-] SitD@feddit.de 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@lemmy.world 3 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

[-] UrielMC@kbin.social 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)

[-] akilou@sh.itjust.works 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.

[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago

No, that's not going to end well

[-] currawong@lemmy.ml 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.

[-] Dude_Dudley@iusearchlinux.fyi 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.

[-] K4sum1@lemmy.zip -3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Calm your tits

[-] ACardboardRaven@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

Honeypot? Can you elaborate more on that?

this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
42 points (88.9% liked)

Privacy

31809 readers
365 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

Chat rooms

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS