Why I moved back to Gmail from Fastmail

May 26, 2026

I am aware that my time on Earth is finite. At 81 years old, I don't plan on going anywhere soon, but I recognize that I won't be here forever.

Lately I’ve been thinking about making things easier for the people who will eventually have to pick up the pieces after I’m gone.

Years ago I moved away from Google services for privacy reasons. Email went to Fastmail. Calendar went to Apple. I still used Google Search, and lately I’ve found myself using Gemini more and more. Now Apple is integrating Gemini into its own AI features, which makes the whole separation feel a little less meaningful than it once did.

The older I get, the more I think privacy on the modern internet is mostly an illusion. Cameras are everywhere. Trackers follow everything we do online. Retailers know what we buy. Streaming services know what we watch. AI companies are scraping everything they can get their hands on, including everything we willingly feed into them.

I still use an ad blocker, but at this point it’s less about privacy and more about not looking at garbage ads.

So I’ve migrated back to Gmail and other Google services. Part of it is practicality. I’ve had my Gmail account since 2004. There’s comfort in stable secure infrastructure that will outlive me.

The bigger reason is simpler than that. I don’t want to leave behind a collection of domains, subscriptions, DNS records, and services that somebody else has to figure out. With Gmail there’s less to manage. Less to explain. Less to break. Really all that’s needed is my password.