Life After Gmail: Why I Opted for a Private Email Server
Fifteen years after entrusting everything to Google, I transitioned to a $500 device made by Helm to take back my privacy. If you didn’t get my last email, please check your spam folder.
Hillary, Ivanka, and Jared were right. No, not about that. Or that. And definitely not that. Just about the one thing, really: the utility of a private email system. Of course, Clintonemail.com proved disastrous to the former secretary of state’s image in 2016. (Ivanka and Jared’s use of ijkfamily.com has been far less headline-grabbing.) But while paying IT consultants to install servers in your basement, as Clinton famously did, can be a bad look politically, it has caught on among executives. In some circles it’s become common to have what’s called “the Hillary setup.”
The security rationale for owning a private server is straightforward. The main way hackers break into email accounts is by phishing, sending links to fake login websites that trick you into giving away your password. But traditional email servers don’t use the web at all. The only way to log in is through Outlook, Apple Mail, or another email app, making them more or less impossible to phish.