it’s been a while since i commented about my esacpe from google, but the fight continues.

so far i’ve just been attacking the ability to gather new information about me, but it’s high time i mounted an offencive and took some of my data back…

Email

this is going to be the hard one, since they actually do a damn good job at running an email service.

i’m not going to self-host email because fuck that hassle… it’s not worth it..

but in order to prepare to leave i need a copy of all my stuff..

google takeout is good, but it only provides a snapshot in time, we can do better..

  1. Create a new vm
  2. Install imap server and configure to point to per-user maildir folders
  3. set up local smtp server and only allow local delivery (pointing to maildir)
  4. install fetchmail (yeah it’s a hack.. but it works)

right.. that’s my side set up.. now for gmail..

  1. enable POPs on gmail
  2. enable pop for all mail even mail that’s already been downloaded
  3. when the messages are accessed, keep gmails copy in the inbox
  4. configure fetchmail to grab my email

ok, that will keep my local email constantly in sync with gmail - as often as i sync.

Why bother with this?

well, this will keep my local email copy in sync with gmail so if i find a new provider that works better i can just pick up sticks and move, no transfer or download is needed as i have it all already.

an added bonus is that by downloading all my email i can nuke the older ones and keep my accout in the free tier of storage. although google drive is the current space consumer.. i’ll tackle this next.

so, yeah