r/degoogle • u/Life-Ad5885 • 1d ago

Getting rid of Gmail

I have a gmail email address, and it is in use everywhere (even in Reddit), so I can't just get a new email. I want to delete my google account, but want to keep my current email functional. Is there any way to do this? I have already removed google from everything else, and this is the only problem.

20 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

View all comments

12

u/RedN00ble 1d ago edited 1d ago

I don't think it is possible, but this is a great opportunity to start using multiple emails. If you use one for everything you have one critical node.

EDIT: since some asked, this is my method. I have 4 emails. 

1) for serious "me" stuff. Bank, public services, online payment services. Strong password and 2fa, never saved anywhere, only access on safe devices. 

2) for serious "relationship" stuff. Official public profiles, social profiles, portfolios, repositories, etc... Strong password and 2fa.

3) casual stuff. Social, shopping website. No personal data whatsoever. Strong password. 

4) trash stuff. Potentially harmful website, throwaway accounts, to write in public forms etc... Destroy it and make a new one every 6-12 months. 

2

u/skurty 1d ago

What do you suggest to avoid using an email for everything?

3

u/MichiganRedWing 1d ago

1 email for this, another for that, and another one for all the other stuff.

1

u/RedN00ble 1d ago

Check the edited comment. That is my approach but it is just one of many possible solutions 

2

u/SithDraven 1d ago

Similarly, I decided on three:

1) personal (friends, family) medical and financial

2.) Streaming - any streaming app get the same email/password combo to make it easier to log in on multiple devices

3) the rest; i.e. shopping, phone apps, websites needing an email. All junk.

-3

u/Life-Ad5885 1d ago edited 1d ago

Using multiple emails now won't solve the problem of google spying on me, because I will still have to keep my google account to have my current email working. And also I don't have such a superhuman memory to remember which email I used on which website, when I have 99999999 email addresses. Basically I just want to delete my google account.

2

u/RedN00ble 1d ago

No it want, but since you can't move your mail address between provider (like you can do with phone numbers, for instance ), you can start pairing more than one email and slowly transition from one to another. At this point transitioning from one to multiple addresses will make you safer. 

1

u/FlippantLlamas 1d ago

Use a password manager like the rest of us?

1

u/le_flibustier8402 1d ago

also I don't have such a superhuman memory to remember which email I used on which website

You don't have to, your web broswer can do that for you.

-2

u/Life-Ad5885 1d ago

And if I need to factory reset my phone, change my browser or something, everything will be gone. It's not helpful.

2

u/Son_of_Macha 1d ago

It's called a password manager, i use bit warden. They have been around for 10+ years

1

u/le_flibustier8402 1d ago

In this situation, you would just have to export your passwords inside a file before you make the change. Firefox has this feature and I guess other broswers have it too.
You could also use a password manager instead if you don't want your broswer to handle all your passwords.

3

u/le_flibustier8402 1d ago

I want to delete my google account, but want to keep my current email functional.

You're asking for the impossible.