Reluctantly moving from FastMail

[kevinhall]

I've been with FM since 2005 and its with great reluctance I'm moving to Google Apps. I'll probably keep my account for at least another year to catch messages as I change many, many logins to my new address but I've come to the conclusion that Fastmail isn't the place I want to be:

1. I'm finding its spam protection less effective. Even worse is the protection from Phish and detection of Malware is less than stellar.
2. I find the interface okay but still feels dated.
3. The Contacts and Calendar functionality is way behind Google (not a fair comparison I know given Google's resources)
4. Google offers so many integrated services it's simply become a no-brainer.

I feel really quite dreadful - Fastmail was an oasis in a sea of terrible email providers, they genuinely love what they do and that's a rare thing.

[fmail_fan]

Best of luck. We'll leave the light on for you...

[JamesHenderson]

Originally Posted by kevinhall

I've been with FM since 2005 and its with great reluctance I'm moving to Google Apps. I'll probably keep my account for at least another year to catch messages as I change many, many logins to my new address but I've come to the conclusion that Fastmail isn't the place I want to be:

1. I'm finding its spam protection less effective. Even worse is the protection from Phish and detection of Malware is less than stellar.
2. I find the interface okay but still feels dated.
3. The Contacts and Calendar functionality is way behind Google (not a fair comparison I know given Google's resources)
4. Google offers so many integrated services it's simply become a no-brainer.

I feel really quite dreadful - Fastmail was an oasis in a sea of terrible email providers, they genuinely love what they do and that's a rare thing.

I am not quite sure why you have posted this as you have already made your decision to leave (and not asked for any help).

So ...good luck.

[Bamb0]

Originally Posted by kevinhall

I feel really quite dreadful - Fastmail was an oasis in a sea of terrible email providers, they genuinely love what they do and that's a rare thing.

Yes everything seems to be quite bad now doesnt it??

We are trying to keep them from taking the classic interface away 1/2 the reason because then only newer browsers will be able to connect! (And other 1/2 being the new interface is not user friendly and doesnt look nice @ all) -- We really dont wanna lose what is GOOD!!

I know I dont wanna make ROBN mad (or anyone else here that works for fastmail) -- I depend on it


Good luck Kevin

[Jacinto]

If you can live with Google's intrusive business practices and continuous data gathering for its own profit, go for it.

If I was going to change E-Mail hosts for something GMailish, I'd pay $4.00 for an Office 365 business account. When I tried it at the time that it was rumored that Facebook was to buy Opera including Fastmail, I found it acceptable for what it was. Don't believe MS collects data from business accounts, but I could be wrong.

Good luck whatever you do.

--
Jacinto

[soromak]

Originally Posted by Jacinto

If you can live with Google's intrusive business practices and continuous data gathering for its own profit, go for it.

If I was going to change E-Mail hosts for something GMailish, I'd pay $4.00 for an Office 365 business account. When I tried it at the time that it was rumored that Facebook was to buy Opera including Fastmail, I found it acceptable for what it was. Don't believe MS collects data from business accounts, but I could be wrong.

Good luck whatever you do.

--
Jacinto

Is Google doing datamining on paid accounts? OP mentioned google apps not gmail.

[jd2066]

Originally Posted by kevinhall

I've been with FM since 2005 and its with great reluctance I'm moving to Google Apps.

It's worth noting if you use IMAP that Google's IMAP support has some quirks such as "Delete Message in folder" translates to "Remove the corresponding label from the message".
You can check this page in the Mozillazine Knowledgebase for more information on the quirks.
I used the free Google Apps service when it first came out and later switched to FastMail in part because it had a regular IMAP service.

[Jacinto]

Originally Posted by soromak

Is Google doing datamining on paid accounts? OP mentioned google apps not gmail.

I moved from a GApps paid account to a Fastmail Enhanced account years ago (and haven't looked back to Gapps, but have occasionally looked forward to other providers -- I'm still with FM, though).

It may have changed since then, but there was a setting to not show Ads. To me that meant that although Google was still reading your messages, no ads were displayed.

Would like to know from a current paid GApps user whether or not that settings still exists.

--
Jacinto

[sheprd]

I agree that the new FM is far from as user friendly as classic interface. Cannot understand why FM could not just continue using Classic interface. Seems they keep removing functions from Classic and in my opinion do away with Classic

[petergh]

This explains in great detail how Google works to protect the privacy of their *paid* Google Apps customers:

https://apps.google.dk/learn-more/ho...your_data.html

What it silently neglects to mention is that all these certifications cover only a subset of Google's products, namely the products listed if you click on Products at the top of the screen. I take that to mean that GA customers are fair game when they use any product not mentioned there, e.g. Google search... if you read some of the documents linked to from that page, specifically the Data Processing Amendment, you'll see that the specific products excempt from data mining are listed meticulously deep inside the wall of text.

Having said that, Gmail and Google Drive, two hugely data-mineable products ARE listed as being part of the product suite NOT mined for data.

[Jacinto]

Originally Posted by petergh

This explains in great detail how Google works to protect the privacy of their *paid* Google Apps customers:

https://apps.google.dk/learn-more/ho...your_data.html

What it silently neglects to mention is that all these certifications cover only a subset of Google's products, namely the products listed if you click on Products at the top of the screen. I take that to mean that GA customers are fair game when they use any product not mentioned there, e.g. Google search... if you read some of the documents linked to from that page, specifically the Data Processing Amendment, you'll see that the specific products excempt from data mining are listed meticulously deep inside the wall of text.

Having said that, Gmail and Google Drive, two hugely data-mineable products ARE listed as being part of the product suite NOT mined for data.

Sounds like good PR. However, petergh hit the nail right on the head in pointing out that whatever Google offerings are not specifically included in Google's hands-off policy are fair game.

Apparently, Google changed some of its evil ways after I stopped my paid GApps subscription -- would never go back. though

Read the below blurb on the above URL:

No advertising

There is no advertising in Google Apps Services and we have no plans to change this in the future. Google does not collect or use data in Google Apps Services for advertising purposes.

It should really read:

There no longer is advertising in Google Apps Services and, although there was advertising in Google Apps Services in the past, we have no plans to change this in the future. . . .

I use DuckDuckGo instead of Google Search, have all Android Google Apps either disabled or uninstalled on all but one Android phone and try not to use Chrome or Opera unless I have to.

Notwithstanding my distrust of the Google empire, I respect the OP's decision to move to Google.

--
Jacinto

[danieldk]

Originally Posted by Jacinto

I moved from a GApps paid account to a Fastmail Enhanced account years ago (and haven't looked back to Gapps, but have occasionally looked forward to other providers -- I'm still with FM, though).

It may have changed since then, but there was a setting to not show Ads. To me that meant that although Google was still reading your messages, no ads were displayed.

The disabled ads in Google Apps by default now. The question whether they are mining data on apps accounts is an interesting one. The terms pretty much say that they don't, the problem is that most Google services leak to other services massively.

To give to examples:

- Google Mail is covered by Google Apps terms. Google Plus is not. I get suggested people on Google Plus that I have only communicated with once per Google Mail. So, although Google Mail is supposedly not mined, information leaks from Google Mail to Google Plus, which is mined.

- Google Hangouts is covered by Google Apps terms. However, once you start sending images, they are stored in Google Plus, which is mined.

- Google Drive is covered by Google Apps terms. However, when you share a folder with a person and that person has a non-Apps Google Mail account, you get into vague territory. Once it lives in their drive, I guess it gets mined.

If you care about your privacy and data, don't touch Google Apps with a ten foot pole. If you don't care about your privacy, at least think about other people's privacy. They might not realise that your domain's e-mail is handled by Google.

Source: I used Google Apps until a couple of months ago on some personal accounts.

---

Besides that, I am a bit surprised by the reasoning of the topic starter. Google's calendar and contacts interfaces are pretty much frozen in time. They only seem to care about updating mobile versions.

[rnkn]

No advertising

There is no advertising in Google Apps Services and we have no plans to change this in the future. Google does not collect or use data in Google Apps Services for advertising purposes.

This just means the data they collect is not used for advertising. It is still collected for Google's other wrongdoings.

[cmac]

what is support like for google apps? it seems with google, you are on your own if you have a problem but i could be wrong.

regardless, i love fastmail and after being with them for almost 2 years now, signed up for another 5 and can't see any reason to move.

[BritTim]

Originally Posted by cmac

what is support like for google apps? it seems with google, you are on your own if you have a problem but i could be wrong.

regardless, i love fastmail and after being with them for almost 2 years now, signed up for another 5 and can't see any reason to move.

If you have a paid version of Google Apps, support does exist. It is not great. First point to note is that you have the option of buying direct from Google or through a reseller. If you go through a reseller, much of the support you get is a matter of negotiation. Google provides assistance only through the reseller and under clearly limited circumstances.

Whether you go through a reseller or direct, the problem with Google (and the same these days with Fastmail) is they are not responsive to customer requests for additional functionality, and existing functionality may change with limited notice.