You should probably switch off Gmail.

Are you still using Gmail in current year? Well you should probably not do that.

Ok but seriously what do I mean by this? Well I mean that as of the time of writing this, August 11th, 2025, there has been a lot of talk here in America of bringing over the UK's Online Safety Act. If you somehow haven't heard TL;DR you need an ID to use services like YouTube, Spotify, Discord, ETC. One thing I haven't heard talked about much however is Email, more specifically Gmail in this case.

I have absolutely no evidence to back up what I am about to say here, so call it an observation (or paranoia whatever works for you). But, is it not out of the question that Google would start requiring an ID to use Gmail? Chances are you reading this use Gmail in some capacity, if I had to guess it's your main email provider like it was mine. No shame, however you should probably find a new email provider sooner rather then later.

Is it hard? No. Is it tedious? Yes. Can you trust my judgement? Who's to say. At the end of the day you determine your own OPSEC and risk evaluation, and if Gmail fits into that model go nuts. I'm not even talking about doing this for "privacy and security" I'm talking about not being essentially blackmailed into giving up your ID just so you can get access to your accounts. Because if you believe nothing else I have said here this should be the one thing you do believe, if you don't have a plan you will be blackmailed by Google into giving up your ID or lose everything to laziness.

I say all this not to insite panic, but as a gentle reminder/warning. Think of just how many accounts you have linked to your Gmail, and how if you disagree and don't want to give them your ID you just lose access. Hell I wouldn't doubt they threaten to delete the account altogether. I've already come to peace with the fact that if what I am saying is true I lose my YouTube channel and YouTube as a service, but I will be damned before I lose everything because I was too inconvenienced to act while I still could. I already moved myself completely to Protonmail as a result.

"What do you recommend I do"

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND MY SUGGESTIONS HERE ARE NOT MEANT FOR HIGHER LEVEL OPSEC MODELS! THIS IS FIRST AND FOREMOST FOR CONVENIENCE AND EASE OF USE! If you're confused why I had to include that warning then I wouldn't worry about it, but if I didn't include it I'd be in a world of hurt. Anyway, as far as Email providers go I suggest the average person use Protonmail, it's free, it's fast, it's easy to use. Hell they even include a function to auto-forward your Gmail inbox, very convenient. If you have an adversion to Protonmail since the incident there is also Tutanota which from what I've heard is pretty good. I don't use Tutanota that much personally, but I do have an email with them and it seems pretty good from my experience. Be warned, however, that they make you wait a few days before being able to use the inbox properly to prevent spam. Again I feel I should clarify these choices for not for 100% anonymity, these are for convenience and ease of use. If you want a 100% private and anonymous email service have fun hosting it yourself, using Cock.li, or some other .onion email provider.