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Palestinians living abroad have accused Microsoft of closing their email accounts without warning - cutting them off from crucial online services (www.bbc.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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They say it has left them unable to access bank accounts and job offers - and stopped them using Skype, which Microsoft owns, to contact relatives in war-torn Gaza.

Microsoft says they violated its terms of service - a claim they dispute.

"They killed my life online," said Eiad Hametto, who lives in Saudi Arabia.

"They’ve suspended my email account that I’ve had for nearly 20 years - It was connected to all my work," he told the BBC.

He also said being cut off from Skype was a huge blow for his family.

The internet is frequently disrupted or switched off there because of the Israeli military campaign - and standard international calls are very expensive.

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on 7 October, which killed about 1,200 people. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 38,000 people have been killed in the war.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

I just switched to FastMail a few weeks ago with my own domains to move away from Google, to prevent this vary possibility.

I realize how screwed I am if my email carrier arbitrarily decides to cut me off. Haven't changed every account, but I started with my bank/financial accounts, and basically intend to change them over time; every time I log into an account for something, I plan to change it.

Edit: Of course, not an advert for FastMail. They are simply who I choose; I own the domains, so I can easily switch to another provider in the future if I so choose without cutting off my accounts. I know more privacy focused people tend to prefer Proton Mail or Tuta Mail. I'm fine with the choices fastmail makes in comparison to the other providers, for the specific features they are able to offer for giving up E2E encryption, a reasonably price family plan, and some more generous offering for value/price.

If someone requires the extra privacy, for sure go for another provider.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If you own your domains... beware of who's your registrar, and which registrar controls the domain you use as the one to manage them.

As a basic safety measure, with two domains, you may want to have one manage the other on a different registrar, and viceversa.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

For sure good advice. I do trust the registrar I am on though. They are not US based, I have been with them for like 15 years, they are well known, automatically provide domain privacy without paying extra, and are not godaddy.

No matter who people choose, just remember to keep your domain locked when not changing registrars, and protect your registrar login with 2FA. Treat your registrar like you would treat your primary email or bank account.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I realize how screwed I am if my email carrier arbitrarily decides to cut me off.

Same as with your bank accounts, choose two providers.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

How well does spam filtering work for you?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

That I really couldn't say, only a few weeks in on emails that were not being used before, so not really getting "unsolicited spam".

I am getting a lot of messages related changing my accounts over.

Their spam filter is configurable though:

They also have complex filters you can set up to either auto-label, or auto-sort non-spam into folders, from basic usage, up to complex regular expressions; depending on your level of dedication.

All I set up for now is an auto-filter any email with 'unsubscribe' somewhere in the body to be sent to an 'subscriptions' folder. I will get around to it more eventually.

I'm currently on the last 2 days of a free 30 day trial. I'm going to do annual pay for their family plan though, so I'm sticking with them.