Do you ever read The Meh List (subtitle: Not Hot, Not Not, Just Meh) in the New York Times Magazine’s One Page Magazine feature? Well, if I were assembling a Meh List for the translation industry, “Translators who own their own domain but still use a Gmail address” would definitely be on it. I always try to refrain from criticizing other people’s decisions, but here I have to make an exception: just as free business cards with the printing company’s marketing message on them scream “I’m not willing to invest the princely sum of $25 in my freelance business,” owning one’s own domain name but still using Gmail screams (to me, at least) “I’m not willing to spend half an hour figuring out how to set up domain name e-mail.” For anyone who’s not familiar with it, domain name e-mail is like “corinne@translatewrite.com.” You buy a website domain name and then create e-mail addresses to go with it.
But, here I find myself preparing to spend two months in Europe this summer, and my current e-mail solutions are problematic. I love my ISP (Front Range Internet), but Gmail gives me more storage space and a fuller-featured webmail interface. And I don’t want to use a non-webmail interface for this extended stay abroad, because I don’t want to be tied to just one computer. So, all of a sudden I was faced with the prospect of becoming one of those translators who owns a domain and uses Gmail anyway, but I’m here to tell you that yes, you can set up Gmail with your own domain. If I set it up without having to call tech support, so can you. Here’s how:
The issue is that it’s easy to forward your domain name e-mail to Gmail, so that people can *send to* your domain name address. It’s a little harder to *reply as* your domain name address, so that people never see the @gmail.com domain. First, read Gmail’s knowledge base page on “Sending mail from a different address.” You’re probably “A Gmail or Google Apps user sending from an external address,” so open that section of the page and read it.
Basically you just follow the instructions on that page; Gmail advises that if this is your work e-mail address, you should use your domain’s SMTP servers rather than Gmail’s servers. My Unix admin husband tells me that this is to avoid your messages being flagged as spam because the SMTP server domain and the e-mail domain don’t match. In my case, my ISP helpfully has all of their SMTP server information in their knowledge base (you need to know the mail server address, the correct port to use, your username and your password) and all of that worked the first time I entered it. Then I simply forwarded my mail from my ISP to my Gmail address and it seems to be all set. This way, my clients do not see my Gmail address but I can take advantage of Gmail’s massive storage allocations and excellent webmail features.
For more on solutions that can help you work while on an extended trip abroad, you can listen to Eve Bodeux’s and my Speaking of Translation call tomorrow (Wednesday, June 13) at 12 noon New York Time. Or listen to the recording afterward! Here’s the link to the call access information (it’s free and you don’t have to preregister) and we’ll post a recording afterward.
Hi Corinne,
I subscribed to your blog recently and look forward to your insights. I’m still in the process of building my career so your experience is invaluable to me – but finally, a post about something I’m doing right! I’ve been using gmail since 2004 – and they finally fixed the pesky “on behalf of” issue in 2009 and made it truly possible to use seamlessly with my own domain.
Now I just have to build my website……
Anyways I’m looking forward to joining your call today. Have fun on your trip to Europe this summer, and let me know if you happen to visit Austria!
Marc
Thanks Marc! I agree, the “reply as” feature is so much better than “on behalf of.” Thanks for your comment!
I have my own domain name and have already spent more than half an hour several times trying to figure out how to set up my domain name e-mail – without success, although I consider myself reasonably tech-savvy.
Unfortunately as freelancers the IT aspect is just another part of the job we have to master – along with marketing, accounts etc and not forgetting being good translators!
Thanks Catherine! Maybe your ISP could help you with the domain name e-mail? I think that when I set mine up for the first time, I just called my ISP’s tech support and had them walk me through it. Thanks for your comment!
I take it you mean website hosting provider, Corinne?
I would be concerned about intellectual property. When I consider the trust my clients place in me when they send a text for quotation to my domain, setting up forwarding through Google without their knowledge would be a clear violation of that trust. It’s (ethically) fine to have a gmail account that is visible as such. The customer can simply choose not to send sensitive information to that address. That’s one reason I would never use one. Certain customers will surely be uncomfortable using a gmail address, and I would assume more companies are becoming aware of the privacy issues every day. Setting up forwarding without providing a clear warning I see as very problematic for translators.
Hi Matt and thanks very much for your comment. Someone who knows more about IT than I do will have to answer this, and I do think it’s worth considering. For example one reason I think everyone should be very wary of online PDF converters or MT engines is that your source document goes into the provider’s databases, which would be a clear violation of a confidentiality agreement. However on this issue, my sense would be that a) e-mail itself is inherently insecure unless it’s encrypted. Whether you use your own domain, Gmail or even Hotmail, everything is sent in clear text over the web; and b)Not that it couldn’t happen, but personally I have never seen a translation client object to the e-mail platform that a translator used. I even work with people who use Hotmail, which is probably the #1 spam trigger out there, and their clients don’t seem to object. Anyone else have thoughts on this?
Tend to agree with Corinne here; email is inherently insecure, and ‘your domain’ is often hosted on a shared platform that is at least as, if not more, susceptible to a concerted attack as the Google servers.
Are emails from your own domain sent over a secure SSL connection? They are with Google, avoiding plaintext sniffing at least at one end on untrusted connections.
Documents shared over various file hosting sites face the same dilemma, so we are left with a rather precarious security situation if we let paranoia take over. I read recently that this is one reason why courier services for hardcopies are still doing brisk business.
If you are able to run a secure mail server from home, you are (more or less) exempt from this concern, and also in the minority. Perhaps when this, and encryption as standard, become the norm we can all relax…
@Matt: I agree with Corinne. Out of curiosity, are you more concerned about third parties or Google itself? Google does know a lot about us, it’s true, but I doubt they could do much with emails sent between us and clients. For many large clients, and particularly sensitive data, translations are performed on servers directly, so no risk of email interception. As Corinne mentions, you shouldn’t send sensitive data (e.g. credit card info) by email of any sort in any case. In addition, since 2010, Google encrypts all mail, making it a better and safer solution than a lot of poor-quality ISP email solutions out there (who don’t even have IMAP, etc…).
Catherine, I’d be happy to help you set up your email solution if you want, but Corinne’s right, your ISP should be able to help you fairly effortlessly!
Thanks Marc! Yes, you explained it much better than I did, thank you! Matt, I’m not arguing that Gmail could never be compromised, it definitely could be. But I think that if clients are concerned about the sensitivity of their documents, they have to avoid e-mail all together and send them via a secure method. Back in 2009, Michael Wahlster (translation IT guru) wrote a great post on his blog called Secrets on a Postcard (http://www.blog.wahlster.net/?p=842) which describes exactly this issue. Michael gave the example that he had repeatedly offered to send his clients’ “highly confidential documents” using PGP encryption (which is easy to use, the client wouldn’t have to do much to take advantage of it) and no client had ever taken him up on the offer. Interesting food for thought!
That Gmail Knowledge Base thing isn’t bad. Thanks for the suggestion. I’d never looked through it before.
Look I’ve got two Gmail accounts. I use them for all my e-mail lists and my private e-mail. I’m not overly paranoid about what they’re doing with my private information, although I’m sure it’s being used for various purposes. I am however quite certain that sending a client’s content through any Google service would be a clear violation of any confidentiality agreement I’ve ever signed. Google is a third party, and you give them the right not only to transmit, but to use any information you provide them. Google opens up your file attachments, all of them, and re-uses the text in other services they provide to the public. Even ZIP archives, I kid you not. That press release your client sends you about a new product that is still under NDA? Parts of it could land on some other Google service, maybe in autocomplete, maybe in a personalized ad. It’s all in strict accordance with the terms of service. As for e-mail being insecure, it is one thing to simply follow suit with a risk your customer chooses to take by using unencrypted e-mail and another to share their data unbeknownst to them with a third party who will mine that data and re-publish it. Of course most companies are no better about this than translators are, but the nature of our jobs has us frequently dealing with sensitive information outside of corporate networks. We should be especially well-informed and cautious. The privacy policy of your webhoster is likely to be far more protective of your rights (otherwise they’d be out of business). You pay them to transmit and store your data, so they don’t need to abuse your privacy. How can Google afford the stunning global infrastructure Gmail alone requires? They have to make that content pay for it. With ads. Your Gmail content is fuel for that fire. Otherwise, why did they invest those billions? It wasn’t generosity, I can tell you that.
Hi Matt.
Well that answers my question. Do you have any evidence Google actually “opens up your file attachments and re-uses the text in other services they provide to the public”? Though it would be somewhat troubling if so, I certainly wasn’t aware and I doubt many of my less tech-savvy clients are worried about it. Perhaps I’m not far enough in my career to be dealing with information quite that sensitive yet.
These pages, for instance, discuss ways Google accesses your email, but there’s no mention about Google republishing information:
http://www.byteindia.com/internet/microsoft-gmail-man/485/
http://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/23407/does-google-read-my-email
As for me, at this point, I’ve become so dependent on gmail I can’t really imagine using another email interface. And I can assure you I’m not the only one. It never crossed my mind that a client would consider this dishonest practice. If they don’t trust gmail, they’ll quite simply just have to use an alternative to email to get information to me!
My way or the highway? Wow. I’m glad to hear you are in such an excellent position in the market to be able to dictate to your clients what security precautions are taken with their data. I’m not quite so lucky. For me, it works the other way around. I get the NDA and am expected to sign it, and more critically, comply with it. I don’t know what your agreements look like, but mine always say I cannot share the data with a third party without express written permission. That, I’m assuming, would certainly include Google (a third party!), and any other service which does more than merely transmit the data. When I have someone sign my confidentiality agreement, I include such a clause as well. I fully intend for that to include Google, but you are correct, that’s not obvious, is it? These are really important issues for our industry. With machine translation and even translation memories becoming more widely shared, it’s getting confusing. It’s difficult to know what the right thing to do is. When the broader public realizes how sensitive the information that we manage is, and how much of it gets spread around, there could very well be a backlash that affects the entire industry. And it will hurt freelancers like you and me first and most. Think about how negatively people react when they find out a medical services provider has not ensured the confidentiality of their medical data. Or when consumers find out some company (like Sony) has let their credit card information be hacked. Why would a translation client react any other way to a breach in security for their intellectual property? As far as Google goes, I have an extremely reliable source with firsthand knowledge as to how that data is manipulated and used. The zip-file thing is a real-life example, I’m not making this up. My jaw dropped when I heard the story. It involves major corporations that you would immediately recognize. This actually happened, and presumably continues to happen. In my private life, I subscribe to the “post-privacy” theory that sharing more (of certain) information has greater benefits than the risks it entails. Unfortunately, this only applies so long as the information you are sharing does not have value only if it remains a secret. At that point, any sharing becomes damaging. And so it is with valuable corporate IP assets. We need to make sure, for our own sakes, that we position our profession not as a Wikileaks-type revolving door, but as a Fort Knox of confidentiality and data security. Otherwise, there may be a price to pay for all of us, once people get wise. And they will. Just give them time. Or the appropriate scandal. Remember, there is no such thing as a free lunch. You are paying for Google’s services — with your information. It has an economic value to them. Should you force your clients to pay Google too?
Absolutely, a valid strategy for working on the road. I’ve tried to make GMail my main email client on various occasion, but found that it actually pulls in emails from other accounts rather slowly (like every 15 minutes only or something like that), which is weird given the speed of the overall GMail interface. I use a portable, fully-featured email client instead, which I carry around on a tiny usb stick on my keyring. I also carry around a copy of my favourite web browser, just to have access to my custom search engines etc. while on the road.
@Matt: Thanks for sharing your insights in such a long post. Definitely some food for thought. Can I ask what solution you propose rather than Gmail then? What host and email client do you use, and does it offer similar convenience to gmail (permanent archive, access anywhere, sync with mobile, etc…) ?
The next time I have to sign an NDA, I’ll be tempted to ask whether my client believes that using a gmail address is an explicit violation of those terms. I suspect many would have no objection. I see that’s not really the point you’re making: you’re saying, even if the client themselves don’t know it, using gmail is still *in practice* a violation of their terms. But that’s where the lines get blurry… and unfortunately, even if you’re right, the practical fact of the matter is, unless there is a scandal or backlash, when the client has an important rush job due next week and you can deliver, they probably won’t dismiss you on the grounds that you use gmail.
I believe your story about the zip-file. But as a result, do you have clients which explicitly refuse to work with email addresses from gmail, hotmail, yahoo, etc? I can see you imposing this policy to eliminate any doubt that you’re not sharing private info. But I also know a few translators with gmail addresses and they’re not starving yet…!
It’s not because I feel I can dictate terms to my clients or violate their NDAs; rather that I interpret them differently. I think, for my purposes, for most purposes, for the purposes of this post – pointing gmail to a private domain is merely a matter of image, and looking “more professional”. You’re talking about much larger scale privacy issues which are being debated every day with new laws trying to be passed in the Western world and the resulting protests. The backlash exists – but it may not be widespread enough. Until then, we have a certain liberty in interpreting these NDAs. Can a client take you to court, or refuse to pay you, for violation of their NDA, if their are no specific ramifications they can point to (i.e. no ads or re-publishing of their information), but merely for using gmail? A question for a lawyer…!
@GB: What portable, fully-featured email client do you use, if you don’t mind sharing? Thunderbird? Looks like I’ll have to start looking into these…!
At the moment, I have a portable copy of Opera on my USB stick, it doesn’t save favorites locally but it immediately synchronises favorites and search engines via Opera Link.
As for the email client, I use a portable copy of Postbox (not free but excellent software), though it took some tweaks to make it portable. Postbox is actually based on Thunderbird. http://www.postbox-inc.com Thunderbird is no longer actively developed by Mozilla and never completely convinced me anyway. But by the time Windows 8 comes out (in a couple of months), there will be an option to run the whole System from a usb key, which should be fantastic!
There is an even better way to take advantage of the Gmail interface, without having to forward your email: Google Apps. You install Google Apps on your domain, and then you can log into Gmail with your domain-hosted email. That way you can keep business and personal emails completely separate. If you have fewer than 10 users (i.e. if you are a freelancer!) you can get Google Apps for free: http://www.google.com/intl/en/enterprise/apps/business/#
It takes a bit of IT confidence, but it is SO nice once it is set up.
Hi Marc, I have my own domain and imap e-mail through my webhoster set up on my PC, Laptop, and phone. I use the K9 e-mail client to access e-mail on my Android phone and Thunderbird on my PCs. This setup provides me far superior e-mail management to Gmail in every way I can think of. I even prefer to access my Gmail accounts through Thunderbird, or even the gmail interface on my Android phone (ice cream sandwich) over the painfully slow web interface. I can’t imagine using Gmail’s web interface for work. It would slow me down immensely. With imap, your messages remain on the server, and you can choose how much of what folder to download and archive locally or not. It’s the best of both worlds. With imap, all your clients are always flawlessly in synch, but everything is always available on the server as well. Webmail is there if you need it, too, but I never do. Google Apps has a different privacy policy from the other Google services I believe. I’d still have a very close look at it, but it may actually afford enough protection to not represent a negligent violation of an NDA.
As far as clients being clueless about these things, I work mainly for IT companies. They are by no means naive when it comes to these matters. More like extremely cautious and wary.
Yes, good call! I’ve been using Gmail with my domain ever since I started using Gmail. …Now I just have to get my site up!
I was guilty of having my own domain name while using a Gmail address because I was worried about grappling with my computer. As is often the case, these things can look far more complicated than they actually are. Your article nudged me to tick this off my To-Do-List and, after 20-30mins of browsing WordPress forums for the info I needed, I set up a professional looking e-mail address with no problems. Thanks!
I completely agree, dear Corinne! And I love the “Meh” list in the Sunday NYT Magazine — right on! Like it or not, having a professional e-mail address at a registered domain name is an essential business tool. I wouldn’t hire a graphic designer with a Hotmail address, and out clients feel the same way: the way you present your services are perhaps even as important as the services themselves. I’ll go out on a limb here and say that in a few years, not having a professional website with the associated professional e-mail address will be like not having a phone.
Hi Corinne,
I have just read this post and found it very useful indeed. I had already set up a domain email address but I have always preferred using Gmail for the same reasons as you i.e. the space and also it’s user friendly layout. This article was very useful – thanks a lot.
I agree with Corinne and Judy; overall presentation and marketing oneself is important for us solo flyers: up there on the list of the quality of the services which we provide. One word comes immediately to mind: professionalism. The IT discussion around security, Google etc. was also enlightening.
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