How to Quit Gmail for Reclaiming Your Privacy

Gmail boasts of more than 1.5 billion active users. This means that one in every five persons on the globe owns a Gmail account. In case you also use Gmail but wish to switch to another service, then you can permanently delete your account.

You might be wondering what all is included in the process. Google accounts provide users access to a number of services such as Hangouts, YouTube, Google Drive, etc. Moreover, Google account allows users to customize their experiences with a lot of services and apps like Google search and Maps.

When you delete your Gmail account, you will lose access to all the websites that need a Google account sign in. You will also be losing your Chrome bookmarks and Play Store purchases.

So, without further ado, let us check out the process of permanently deleting a Gmail account.

Create a new email account

Ensure that you pick a good, secure, and robust email service. Many good email services need to be paid for. Almost all free email services make use of user data for ad purposes. Hence, you need to be wise while making the decision.

Forward Selected Emails from the Old Email Address

In case sharing the email directly with Google is bothersome to you, then you can create an anon account on some other webmail service. Make sure the service deletes your communication records.

  • Open your Gmail on a browser.
  • After that, click on the gear icon at the top right corner of the screen.
  • From the pull-down menu, choose the Settings option.
  • Now, click on the following option: Forwarding and POP IMAP.
  • Move to the Forwarding segment.
  • Click on the radio ion located beside Forward a copy of the incoming email to.
  • Now, input the email address you want the email to get forwarded to.
  • After that, click on Delete Gmail’s copy.
  • Finally, scroll down to the end of the webpage and click on Save Changes.

Changing Email Address for Different Account

You may wish to change your sign-in email address for the account that makes use of your Gmail. In case you do not do so, then you will have to make sure your Gmail account is active, as it will be needed when you forget passwords for linked accounts. This is a very tedious process. You may choose to keep the account active and just empty the inbox. If your inbox remains blank, then Google will not get any meaningful information. However, you still will be getting promotional emails. While you can unsubscribe to them, new and new promotional mails will keep cropping up, especially if your account is fairly old.

Migrating 3rd Party Google Account Logins

In case you use your Gmail account to log in to other sites, then you will have to transfer the accounts to another email address based account. However, some services do not allow such migrations. In these cases, you will just have to make a new account.

Enable Autoresponder

In case you are planning to make the change of your email address public, you should use Contacts-only automatic responder. In case you wish to enable autoresponder to just reply to the existing Gmail contacts, then do as follows:

  • Open your Gmail account.
  • Log in to your account.
  • From the home page, click on the gear icon at the top right corner.
  • From the list, select the Settings option.
  • Move down the webpage and stop at the vacation responder segment.
  • Enter your message in the text box.
  • Now, checkmark the square beside Only send a response to those in my Contacts.
  • Select the First Day.
  • After that, select the Last Day.
  • Finally, when satisfied with everything, move to the end of the webpage and click on Save Changes.

Closing the Google Account

It is strongly suggested to download your personal Gmail account data before you delete the account. After deleting the account, you will not be able to access the data, and it will be deleted permanently.

Here are the steps for deleting your Google Account.

  • First, go to Gmail.com.
  • Now, sign in by entering your username and password.
  • After that, click on Data and Personalization. It is available on the left side of the screen.
  • Scroll to the Download, delete or make a data plan segment.
  • Click on the Delete your account option.
  • Once again, click on Delete your account.

Wrapping it up

The process of quitting Gmail and moving to a safer and more private webmail service is not very difficult. However, it does take a lot of effort, especially when you have been using the account for quite a while. Still, it is worth to put in the efforts and switch to a more secure platform.

Devin Smith is a creative person who has been writing blogs and articles about cyber security. He writes about the latest updates regarding mcafee.com/activate and how it can improve the work experience of users. His articles have been published in many popular e-magazines, blogs and websites.

Source:-https://camcafee.com/how-to-quit-gmail-for-reclaiming-your-privacy/

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