Google has most of my email because it has all of yours (2014)
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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderHaving your own email/domain isn’t about privacy. Email has become essentially the key to almost everything in modern life. If I lose access to my email I lose access to basically everything I own and it would be a massive hassle to switch emails. Banks, schools, apps, etc. Often times these services won’t even let you change to a new email if you don’t have access to an existing one. Some use email as 2factor. It’s a nightmare. Owning your…
The email monopolies annoy me the most when other apps assume you have gmail/apple/etc. Notion recently launched email integration that only works with GMail, and all the marketing was basically "we added Email to Notion" instead of "we added _Gmail_ to Notion".
The takeaway? Don't use standard e-mail (gmail or otherwise) for anything that needs guaranteed privacy. Once you send an e-mail, it is not within your control what happens to it or who sees it. That's why, for example, in healthcare -- messages are commonly wrapped in secure message "containers". The e-mail simply has a link that takes you to a third party where the actual message is stored, encrypted, has an expiration date, and you must authenticate to view it…
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 3
- Total points
- 843
- Total comments
- 644
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-09-12 | Google has most of the emails even if run your own mail server (2014) | snehesht | 2 | 0 |
| 2015-09-16 | Google has most of my email because it has all of yours (2014)First breakout | liotier | 118 | 53 |
| 2017-10-01 | Google Has Most of My Email Because It Has All of Yours (2014) | tonyztan | 3 | 0 |
| 2017-10-23 | Google Has Most of My Email Because It Has All of Yours | rbcgerard | 3 | 0 |
| 2022-10-23 | Google has most of my email because it has all of yours (2014)Hall induction · Best thread | pabs3 | 453 | 386 |
| 2024-11-27 | Google Has Most of My Email Because It Has All of Yours (2014) | Gedxx | 12 | 0 |
| 2025-05-06 | Google has most of my email because it has all of yours (2014)Latest 20+ point return | pabs3 | 252 | 205 |