Paul O'Brien

Email Is Still a Craft — Even If We Pretend It Isn’t Email isn’t just receipts and notifications. It remains a deliberate craft in a world obsessed with speed and productivity suites.

When did email stop being the product and become just the login?

In a world of chat, AI assistants and productivity suites, I still think email is a craft — slower, deliberate and intentional.

New piece:
paulobrien.com/email-is-sti...

#Email
#Productivity
#TechCulture

Why We’ll Pay for Almost Anything — Except Email Why people hesitate to pay for email, despite relying on it for identity, access, and trust across almost every part of their digital life.

We’ll pay for streaming and coffee — but not email.

Why does paying for email feel unnecessary?

A look at how free became default, and what that trades for scale.

paulobrien.com/pay-for-almo...

#Email #Privacy #Security

HEY Email Review: Brilliant or Overpriced? HEY Email reimagines the inbox with bold design and strict controls. Brilliant rethink or overpriced experiment? An honest long-term review.

HEY tried to fix email by redesigning everything around it.
Some of it worked. Some of it didn’t.
This is a long look at where HEY shines — and where the cracks show.

paulobrien.com/hey-email-br...

#hey #email #emailproviders #productdesign

6 “From” Addresses Inside Every Email Explained Emails have more than one “from” address. Learn the six sender identities inside every message and why they often don’t match.

There isn’t one From address in email. There are six.

paulobrien.com/the-6-differ...

#Email #EmailSecurity #DMARC #SPF #DKIM

Have I Been Pwned: What Data Breaches Mean for Your Email Check if your email appears in data breaches with Have I Been Pwned, and learn what exposed data really means for your digital identity.

Every few months another data breach hits the news. Most of us shrug — until we see our own email in a breach database.

Here’s what that actually means for your digital life →
paulobrien.com/why-have-i-b...
#EmailSecurity #DataBreach

Why Apple Mail Still Lags Behind Gmail and Outlook Apple leads in design and user experience — but its email still feels like a basic utility rather than a truly Apple-level product.

Apple designs some of the best products in the world, but email feels different

I’ve been embedded in the ecosystem since the first iPhone. This is the one experience that still feels like a utility, not a product Apple is trying to advance

👉 paulobrien.com/apple-email-...
#AppleMail #Apple #Email

Gmail: From Invitation-Only Experiment to Default Inbox How Gmail grew from launch hype to the world’s default inbox — and why reliability, scale, and ecosystem mattered more than privacy.

Gmail didn’t become the world’s default inbox by accident.
From invitation-only experiment to global baseline — this is how reliability, scale, and ecosystem beat privacy-first ideals.
paulobrien.com/how-gmail-be...
#Email #Gmail #DigitalInfrastructure #Privacy

Tutanota in 2026: Maximum Encryption, Minimal Surface Area Tutanota prioritises maximum encryption and minimal data exposure, trading convenience for a smaller attack surface in 2026.

Tutanota takes the most uncompromising position in email privacy: encrypt more, expose less, accept the trade-offs.

What that really means in 2026 ↓
paulobrien.com/tutanota-in-...
#EmailPrivacy #EmailSecurity #DigitalTrust

Email Authentication: SPF, DKIM, DMARC & Trust Signals SPF checks delivery paths — not sender identity.

Most spam today is correctly authenticated email.

That sounds wrong — until you understand what SPF, DKIM, and DMARC were actually designed to do.

The series:
paulobrien.com/tag/email-au...
#Email
#DMARC
#Spam

Thanks — really appreciate you taking the time to read it 🙏

Your Email Address Is Still Your Weakest Privacy Link Privacy rarely fails through hacks. It erodes quietly as the same email address is reused across accounts, services, and years of digital life.

We’ve made big strides in inbox security — but the email address itself is still a weak point for privacy.
Why your address leaks more about you than you might think, and what that implies for how we protect ourselves.
🔗 paulobrien.com/your-email-a...

#EmailPrivacy #PrivacyFirst #DigitalLife

Why Spam Isn’t Disappearing — It’s Just Changing Shape Spam hasn’t disappeared — it has adapted. An analysis of how modern spam relies on familiarity and trust rather than volume.

Spam hasn’t gone away — it’s changed shape.

Less volume. More precision. Higher impact when it works.

This piece looks at how spam shifted from a numbers game to a trust problem — and why modern inboxes are designed around containment, not perfection.

🔗 paulobrien.com/why-spam-isn...

Zero-Access Architecture Explained: What It Really Means Zero-access architecture changes who can read your email by design. This guide explains what it really means and why the trade-offs matter.

New piece for Sicla Media:

What zero-access architecture actually means — and why it matters.

It’s not about perfect security. It’s about designing systems that assume failure and reduce blast radius by default.
paulobrien.com/what-zero-ac...
#EmailSecurity #Privacy #ZeroAccess

Why Using Your Own Domain for Email Makes Sense Email addresses often outlive the services behind them. Using your own domain reduces lock-in, avoids scarcity, and gives long-term control.

Email addresses feel permanent — even though the services behind them aren’t.

Using your own domain keeps your identity portable and under your control.

Why it makes sense:
paulobrien.com/why-using-yo...

Free vs Paid Email: What You’re Really Paying With A clear look at the real trade-offs behind free and paid email—privacy, incentives, lock-in, support, and long-term control.

Free vs paid email isn’t really about features — it’s about incentives, lock-in, support, and long-term control.
I wrote this to help people think more clearly about what “free” actually costs over time:
paulobrien.com/free-vs-paid...

#Email #Privacy #Security

It’s Not If Your Email Provider Gets Hacked — It’s When Email breaches are inevitable. What matters is how much damage they cause. Why modern email security assumes failure — not perfection.

Email isn’t valuable because of what you write in it — it’s valuable because it resets passwords, verifies identity, and unlocks everything else.

At internet scale, breaches are a matter of when, not if.

paulobrien.com/its-not-if-y...

#EmailSecurity #Privacy

How I Think About Email — Paul O’Brien How I think about email after 30 years of use — from inbox zero and privacy to tools, defaults, and why control matters more than features.

I’ve added a short page explaining how I think about email — inbox control, privacy, and design.

It’s context for the rest of my writing:
paulobrien.com/how-i-think-...

Why Some Marketing Emails Only Offer an Unsubscribe Link Why unsubscribe-only marketing emails frustrate subscribers, what the data shows about email frequency, and why better preference controls matter

Many marketing emails force a binary choice: unsubscribe or nothing.

The data suggests most people don’t want to leave — they just want fewer emails.

paulobrien.com/marketing-em...

#Email
#Inbox
#Privacy

DuckDuckGo Email Protection Review DuckDuckGo Email Protection forwards email while removing trackers and reducing spam.

Email tracking often matters more than spam.

DuckDuckGo Email Protection forwards email while removing trackers — without replacing your inbox.

My review:
paulobrien.com/duckduckgo-e...

#Email #Privacy #SpamAndTracking #theemailguy

You Might Finally Be Able to Change Your Gmail Address Google appears to be rolling out the ability to change a Gmail address while keeping the same account. What it means for identity, aliases, and long-term email ownership

Gmail may finally allow users to change their email address without losing their account.

It’s not dramatic — but it says a lot about how email identity has evolved.

paulobrien.com/you-might-fi...

#Email
#Tech

StartMail Review 2026 — Unlimited Aliases & Private Email Is StartMail still worth it in 2026? A deep review of privacy, security, pricing, aliases, and how it compares to Proton Mail.

paulobrien.com/startmail-re...

#EmailPrivacy
#SecureEmail
#PrivacyTools
#EmailSecurity
#DigitalPrivacy

Paul O’Brien — The Email Guy Independent writing on email providers, privacy-first tools, and digital productivity

Independent writing on email providers, privacy-first tools, and digital productivity.

Clear reviews. No hype. No tracking nonsense.

👉 paulobrien.com

#Email #Privacy #TheEmailGuy