Would using Yandex email be a safer alternative than Gmail in terms of US data grabbing?

[BoringZombie]

I am looking at moving away from Microsoft and Google email services. Some of the encrypted emails I looked at have very limited storage and requires you to be active every few months to keep the email running and I need about 7 different email addresses. I don't feel like paying for emails and the secure online emails would be too messy for me really. Would using a service like Yandex Mail be a better option since it's outside the US and is Russian based? I know they may hand over my information to Russian enforcements if asked to do so, but they seem like a better google alternative, and since I'm in the US I know Russia would be harder on the US or may not cooperate if asking for my email information.

 

[KGIII]

In my opinion, yes.

I tend to chuckle at the people who scoff at Russia or China hosting stuff as though the Chinese or Russians actually care about someone in my country. What are they gonna do, send you angry emails or make lewd phone calls? Instead, they use some provider in a country that is an ally with my country and think this makes more sense.

(I don't actually worry about any of it, hosting most of my own mail - minus some public email addresses.)

You can also do free email at your own domain name with Yandex. So, you could have your own domain name and email addresses, like [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] - which might be the easiest way to go, as far as managing them.

 

[BoringZombie]

In my opinion, yes.

I tend to chuckle at the people who scoff at Russia or China hosting stuff as though the Chinese or Russians actually care about someone in my country. What are they gonna do, send you angry emails or make lewd phone calls? Instead, they use some provider in a country that is an ally with my country and think this makes more sense.

(I don't actually worry about any of it, hosting most of my own mail - minus some public email addresses.)

You can also do free email at your own domain name with Yandex. So, you could have your own domain name and email addresses, like [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] - which might be the easiest way to go, as far as managing them.

Thank you very much for answering this. I'll be creating new emails with Yandex and deleting the others.

 

[JasKinasis]

Personally, I'd recommend Protonmail - swiss owned and hosted, free, secure and private!

 

[BoringZombie]

Personally, I'd recommend Protonmail - swiss owned and hosted, free, secure and private!

I'm just not a fan on paid mail accounts, and having free mail accounts with very limited features, and having to log in often to keep it active.

 

[Terminal Velocity]

Consider 7 email aliases with Simple Login, its a permanent service you make them and don't have to bother again
edit:
Simple Login it's a service

SimpleLogin | Open source anonymous email service

With email aliases , you can be anonymous online and protect your inbox against spams and phishing.

simplelogin.io

 

[BoringZombie]

Consider 7 email aliases with Simple Login, its a permanent service you make them and don't have to bother again

Already got the services I'm going to use. I like to use complex logins and I use a offline password manager on an encrypted thumb drive.

 

[Terminal Velocity]

Except yandex and gmail, what other email providers require no regular login to maintain the account?

 

[JasKinasis]

I'm just not a fan on paid mail accounts, and having free mail accounts with very limited features, and having to log in often to keep it active.

Fair do’s!
I’ve been using a free email account with protonmail for a number of years. I haven’t had any problems with it. But then, I don’t tend to send or receive huge amounts of email. And I don’t save many emails either, so the limited storage isn’t really a problem for me.

 

[MatsuShimizu]

I've been using Yandex Mail for 2 years now. I am more than happy with this service.
What I like:
- A great alternative to Gmail and other popular email providers.
- I can filter messages and place them into a separate folder. ProtonMail, Tutanota's free version can do the same, but it is very limited.
- I can change the theme. I like the Marine theme. It is so beautiful. See my screenshot.
- I can also use another email alias to send emails to others.
- In case I lose the password, I can reset it with a phone number. Just so everyone else knows, ProtonMail can also do the same today. By default, this function is turned off on ProtonMail.
- It comes with cloud storage, Yandex Disk as an alternative to Google Drive.
- You can also use Yandex Translate. The advantage of Yandex Translate is you can translate images and not just text.
- I also had the Yandex browser installed, but I rarely use it. In case I want to translate the entire website, I would this browser since it can also translate images.

What I don't like:
Other Yandex products like their search engine and maps are useless to me. But it could be useful to others.

Screenshot of my inbox:

As for the privacy part:
They make money from ads, so yes, they might share some of your metadata with advertisers, as you can read from their privacy policy here. However, there are not many Yandex advertisers worldwide, when compared to Google or Facebook.

Since I'm in the US I know Russia would be harder on the US or may not cooperate if asking for my email information.

These are the areas where people use Yandex (from Wikipedia) and there could be Yandex advertisers there:
Area served: Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Israel, Turkey and Estonia, Ukraine (until 2017)

I'm just not a fan on paid mail accounts, and having free mail accounts with very limited features, and having to log in often to keep it active.

I'll be creating new emails with Yandex and deleting the others.

You don't have to delete other ProtonMail account if you don't want to. You can use the ElectronMail app to stay login and check your inbox once every few days.

ElectronMail - ProtonMail Desktop App For Free Users

If you are a fan of secure, open-source emails, you should probably know about ProtonMail, which is a secure email based in Switzerland. The problem is, if you are a free user, you cannot stay login into your browser. Therefore, you might check the inbox less often. ElectronMail desktop app...

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