Ok I got out of Gmail; at least I have started an alternative with privacy concerns. But what if something goes wrong with it, what if I have an issue in login in. As I am overthinking and organizing step by step, I feel the need to find ways to recover easily.

Another word about Gmail

So my main mailbox is still on Gmail, because I’m not ready yet to switch out from it. Plus, I’ll keep it for online accounts on not so privacy concerned platforms that need an email. That includes Github, Gitlab, and any other that I use for convenience but with known flaws, and for which I don’t want to disclose my clean email.

Of course, Disroot provides email aliases for that kind of situation (e.g. account+specific-suffix-for-that-account@disroot.org) but I would prefer to not multiply them, plus replying with that protection is not straightforward.

Multiple accounts

On my Disroot account, I chose to keep a recovery email to contact for security questions, in order to unlock. What to specify there? I have my ISP email that I never use, but I don’t want to be linked to it.

So I also have an account on Proton. It’s an on profit company, but at least they are focused on security. I think it’s a good fallback for email recovery.

Process

I started by creating my Disroot account, using my ISP email for confirmation address, then configured mutt to access it, installed K-9 Mail and configured on my mobile, and bookmarked the Disroot webmail because, to be honest, I’m more used to webmails due to my super long usage of gmail.

Then I created my free Proton account using my Disroot account as verification address, configured the recovery information through several ways: Disroot email, phone number, recovery phrase and recovery key. The two last ones are saved in my private vault.

I then modified my fallback address on Disroot for the Proton one, making there a cycling dependency.