Effect of storing your seed phrase in Gmail account

[Cricktor]

~~~

Not only can any online storage, website or mailbox be compromised (if you use bad passwords, re-use weak passwords, get phished, ...), but also nobody should forget that online storage, websites, mailboxes or cloud storage is simply someone else's computers (individuals or companies). There are always admins and technicians who can access your data unless you sent it strongly encrypted and the other side doesn't have access to the decryption key.

Sure, Google likely has processes in place that prevent uncontrolled access to user's personal data. But in the end, there's always some admin who potentially could access your data if they wanted to. And you as end-user, you've no control over this!

[RockBell]

Not only can any online storage, website or mailbox be compromised (if you use bad passwords, re-use weak passwords, get phished, ...), but also nobody should forget that online storage, websites, mailboxes or cloud storage is simply someone else's computers (individuals or companies). There are always admins and technicians who can access your data unless you sent it strongly encrypted and the other side doesn't have access to the decryption key.

Anything that as to do with cloud saving is dangerous been mail or anything you are just putting your credentials online make it open for them to want to hack and this is why even if you are login into website you don't need to save your passwords online because sometimes when you log into does websites they will request you to save but dont auto save because it might affect you in the future and anything you are connecting to after you are done then you should disconnect it.

Sure, Google likely has processes in place that prevent uncontrolled access to user's personal data. But in the end, there's always some admin who potentially could access your data if they wanted to. And you as end-user, you've no control over this!

And the same Google is improving doh but it still does not guarantee that it is safe just aviod saving anything, and it is better to save offline than online you consider the risk of saving online but people don't want to learn the easy way but the hard way, this is why do your research and then you can conclude. That is when you will know the important.

[promise444c5]

Not only can any online storage, website or mailbox be compromised (if you use bad passwords, re-use weak passwords, get phished, ...), but also nobody should forget that online storage, websites, mailboxes or cloud storage is simply someone else's computers (individuals or companies). There are always admins and technicians who can access your data unless you sent it strongly encrypted and the other side doesn't have access to the decryption key.

Anything that as to do with cloud saving is dangerous been mail or anything you are just putting your credentials online make it open for them to want to hack and this is why even if you are login into website you don't need to save your passwords online because sometimes when you log into does websites they will request you to save but dont auto save because it might affect you in the future and anything you are connecting to after you are done then you should disconnect it.

Depending on the mails, if it’s about your credentials that do not carry some sensitive info that could put you at monetary risk , to some extent it’s safe as no one could actually  access so far there’re no breach and at the same time, you are using a trusted service like gmail.. Else you can try out Email providers that support Pretty Good Privacy(PGP) for end-to-end encryption, preferably stuff like that should be kept to only your self and maybe someone trusted like a family.

Also, regarding the passwords been safe when logged in to a website, most websites normally prompt it and then you can choose to accept or not while it might auto save it sometimes , but in some cases when you use a credit card some the details can be saved to your browser automatically, you can always managed and disable anything auto from the browser settings as well as removing saved..

[traderethereum]

snip

Personal information is sensitive and it must be stored offline, privately and safely as most as possible from online threats. You can not trust governments, any company about your personal documents. With governments, you have no choice if they request you to do this, but with companies provide their services to you, you can avoid it as most as possible.

Individually, you are totally free on what you do with your personal document storage, so make sure you choose a good method. Without pressure from any side, if you choose dangerous storage method, like online, you can not blame it on anyone or any company policy.

Some about privacy for learning.
https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information/privacy.html
https://bitcoiner.guide/privacy/
https://www.privacytools.io/

We only believe on ourselves so need to make sure that we keep the personal information in the right place. We can follow what the government ask but our personal information will still be on us. We can rent a deposit box in the bank if that is necessary to keep our personal information because they have a high level security and they will give protection to their customer. At least, that is what some rich people on my country to secure their personal information. So online storage will not be recommended for people because we never know what will happen on that company because hacker and scammer will always trying to trick their target.

[Ever-young]

Who stores seed phrases on the internet?
Well, I don’t blame some newbies who engage in this dangerous storage method because most of them fail to understand the essence of security when it comes to crypto, or maybe they don’t really have much inside those wallets. But for those who already have a sizable amount of Bitcoin in their wallet, it’ll be very pitiful for them to consider using this method to store their seed phrase because there always a 99.9% chance of an email hack and that would resort to losing all your funds.

[MusaPk]

And the same Google is improving doh but it still does not guarantee that it is safe just aviod saving anything, and it is better to save offline than online you consider the risk of saving online but people don't want to learn the easy way but the hard way, this is why do your research and then you can conclude. That is when you will know the important.

I am using gmail for many years and so far I haven't experienced any issue related to hacking or account compromised. That doesn't mean it's fine to store your Bitcoin seed on gmail or any other online storage platform. In case you lose your Bitcoin, no one can help you to retrieve them back. Just a simple precaution can save your Bitcoins from online theft, which is never store your seed online. The most simple way to secure your seed is to write on paper and store at some safe location. 

[GeorgeJohn]

The is that if you want to get your seed phrase saved, do not save it in anything that has to do with online documents, saving your seeds phrase in email is at risky indecencies that your email can be hacked by someone who is monitoring your movements and also interested to move all the coins in your wallet

So from my views, it's good for we to write our seed phrase down and document it to a place where no one will see it, except you, because if you save it through email it can be easily hacked by hackers, so if they're having issues of seed phrase been hacked, I believe that it's been hacked by the place of storage. In conclusion, save your seed phrase offline.

[odunybiz]

You know had it mean is possible I wouldn't have think of saving any of my documents online be it seed phrase, password, just any important documents shouldn't be saved online because there's a high level of risk in doing that, the reason why I said this is because the system can trip off at anytime. sometimes our cellphone can get spoilt and without you having it saved offline definitely you will lose access to all your files. And recovering those lost files is not going to be that easy, this is one of the disadvantage of storing our things online.

As online has it's own disadvantage, same with offline as well. What if where you wrote it get lost or burn? I think storing your data in both mean can save a lot. I often use email and a save note(where I write all my important information). But I'm confused here when I went through different post saving saving information on email are risky. What if I don't have that email save on any phone)

[Felicity_Tide]

Not only can any online storage, website or mailbox be compromised (if you use bad passwords, re-use weak passwords, get phished, ...), but also nobody should forget that online storage, websites, mailboxes or cloud storage is simply someone else's computers (individuals or companies). There are always admins and technicians who can access your data unless you sent it strongly encrypted and the other side doesn't have access to the decryption key.

Sure, Google likely has processes in place that prevent uncontrolled access to user's personal data. But in the end, there's always some admin who potentially could access your data if they wanted to. And you as end-user, you've no control over this!

Third party storage services?, a user shouldn't consider his/her personal data as only one way/user access. The companies incharge always go through those data, to see if they can find the necessary items or information that can benefit them. There are rumors of big companies, selling users personal data to other companies or research institutes, even when their terms says otherwise.

I think I lost hope in data privacy when I watched a documentary(can't remember now) of the police printing someone's Whatsapp chats for investigation process. I literally couldn't understand what was going on because Whatsapp always tells customers that their chats and calls are end to end encrypted.

Same things goes for other third service platforms. As long as your personal data is online, their terms and conditions might contradict what they do in reality.

[ABCbits]

I think I lost hope in data privacy when I watched a documentary(can't remember now) of the police printing someone's Whatsapp chats for investigation process. I literally couldn't understand what was going on because Whatsapp always tells customers that their chats and calls are end to end encrypted.

AFAIK they're not lying about chats and calls are end to end encrypted. But it give false sense of privacy and security since,
1. They collect and store lots of metadata. See https://www.techradar.com/computing/cyber-security/whatsapp-encryption-isnt-the-problem-metadata-is.
2. Flagged/reported message is sent to whatsapp without encryption. See https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/09/whatsapp-end-to-end-encrypted-messages-arent-that-private-after-all/.

[Yucky]

You know, because of the way this online storage can be very vulnerable to scammers, and mistakes like this can happen because in some cases, you can't even trust a close friend. Money goes with a very strong spirit, a friend of yours can see how much pi you have, calculate the money, and that might make them take greedy actions.

You can keep your seed phrase information on the paper and save it's somewhere only you know, even if it's as crazy as bearing it or something like that, because it's better to be safe than sorry. initially, I thought Gmail was okay for sending yourself an email of your seed phrase but knowing that scammers can still penetrate it, I stopped saving it online. It's really painful to see that the pi that you worked for someone is going to rip off.

[Cookdata]

As online has it's own disadvantage, same with offline as well. What if where you wrote it get lost or burn? I think storing your data in both mean can save a lot. I often use email and a save note(where I write all my important information). But I'm confused here when I went through different post saving saving information on email are risky. What if I don't have that email save on any phone)

Every solutions comes with its own demerits but I don't want to believe having offline wallet like self custody and preferable a hardware wallet has a disadvantage if you do it properly as guided. If you have a hardware wallet that is never connected to the internet, you wallet will remain offline until you exposed it to the internet and as long as the seed phrase is written on a non fungible item like metal plate and properly secure, you have nothing to worry about except when it get exposed.

Online wallet that is self custody are safe but the degree of danger you can get exposed to is very high because if you are connected to the internet, there is 1000 ways your wallet can get exposed easily. Anything that is connected to the internet can be accessed even if your wallet is not exposed to anyone, you can download a malware unaware and before you know, you Bitcoin will be sent from your wallet to another destination address without your notice. Stay safe guys.

[Natalim]

~~~

Not only can any online storage, website or mailbox be compromised (if you use bad passwords, re-use weak passwords, get phished, ...), but also nobody should forget that online storage, websites, mailboxes or cloud storage is simply someone else's computers (individuals or companies). There are always admins and technicians who can access your data unless you sent it strongly encrypted and the other side doesn't have access to the decryption key.

Sure, Google likely has processes in place that prevent uncontrolled access to user's personal data. But in the end, there's always some admin who potentially could access your data if they wanted to. And you as end-user, you've no control over this!

That’s the sad reality there, we don’t have the sole control if we chose to save our documents or seed phrases online. There’s always a risk, so it’s best to save it in a hardware wallet, or a cold storage wallet, or just do everything offline. At least you will get rid of scammers, but make sure to save your seed phrase in a water resistant or fire resistant, so that no matter what natural disasters may come, your seed phrase will remain safe and secured.

[r_victory]

We should never store our information such as private keys and seed phrases in cloud storage. In addition to hardware wallets, I usually save them on external HDs and encrypted USB sticks. They may not be as secure as a Ledger, for example, but they have served me well.

[Altryist]

 The safest way to store your seed phrase is to write it down on paper and store it securely, for security you can make several hiding places. For higher security you can use additional encryption for your seed phrase, but you need to approach this responsibly so as not to clog this encryption method in the future.
All other methods of storing the seed phrase, which can be compromised, can lead to the loss of all coins, as happened in the story that the OP told. Any online source is already a risk, I do not know if there are programs that cannot be hacked, and in addition, there is always a human factor, which will also affect the safety of coins.

[Peanutswar]

The first mistake right here is storing your seed phrase online we know multiple times that if you have a crypto wallet one of the thing you need to do is to make your wallet safe include with the seed there's no safe right now in the internet Everyone can now access your credentials, there's a mentioned above what are the strategies of storing your seed phrase and number one rule on it is don't store online you must need to have a physical copy of it and if you are the kind of person always forgot the seed ideal to scatter those everyone you are the only one knows where you put. Next mistake right here is making trust with your friend to access your device there's a saying that your friend is not your friend, imagine he get the urge to stole your friends even though you are friends well money is money so you can see others real faces in terms of that, sad to see this could be charge of experience for a mistake.

[Taskford]

The first mistake right here is storing your seed phrase online we know multiple times that if you have a crypto wallet one of the thing you need to do is to make your wallet safe include with the seed there's no safe right now in the internet Everyone can now access your credentials, there's a mentioned above what are the strategies of storing your seed phrase and number one rule on it is don't store online you must need to have a physical copy of it and if you are the kind of person always forgot the seed ideal to scatter those everyone you are the only one knows where you put. Next mistake right here is making trust with your friend to access your device there's a saying that your friend is not your friend, imagine he get the urge to stole your friends even though you are friends well money is money so you can see others real faces in terms of that, sad to see this could be charge of experience for a mistake.

The common issue with these people is they think its more convenient for them to choose that option because they are so confident that nothing will happen to them as they are aware of the hacks happening.

But actually we cannot really assure that we are totally safe especially that these hackers have multiple ways to penetrate and it will just cost us to commit single mistake and everything will be fucked around. That's why its better we go on more safety way and I think the best way to store our seed phrase is to write it on our notebooks or offline storage so that we can make sure that there's no online entities that can access our funds.

I know there are people would say that we are still at risk if someone stole our notebook that's why we also make sure that we put it on safe places and we should not give any hint that we write some important information there.

[EarnOnVictor]

Keeping your seed phrase in Gmail account is dangerous because it puts your assets at serious risk. Your Gmail account might be compromised, and no matter how careful you are, keeping it online would be considered unsafe.  To improve the security of your Bitcoin seed phrase, move it to an offline storage.

Seeing victims like this makes me angry about how dumb people can be.

Can you imagine? If not your friend who had access to your phone, what about your family members, girlfriend/wife? Or even hacking issues?

My Gmail has been hacked many times in the past, I had to change my pass details as always advised by Google itself. Anything can happen, and sensitive details should never be saved in e-mails. If at all you must do that, you need to code it there. Let's stop being foolish.

[examplens]

The first mistake right here is storing your seed phrase online we know multiple times that if you have a crypto wallet one of the thing you need to do is to make your wallet safe include with the seed there's no safe right now in the internet Everyone can now access your credentials, there's a mentioned above what are the strategies of storing your seed phrase and number one rule on it is don't store online you must need to have a physical copy of it and if you are the kind of person always forgot the seed ideal to scatter those everyone you are the only one knows where you put. Next mistake right here is making trust with your friend to access your device there's a saying that your friend is not your friend, imagine he get the urge to stole your friends even though you are friends well money is money so you can see others real faces in terms of that, sad to see this could be charge of experience for a mistake.

I stopped reading when I saw that it was about the Pi coin seed phrase. I am sure that most of the Pi witnesses are total beginners, without any prior knowledge of cryptocurrencies and very easy targets for scammers. At least the ones I met.
That's why it's not surprising that they accept Gmail as the central and sacred place where the Internet begins.