I often feel like the dinosaur I am, but that is why I use a pop client (thunderbird) and manage my own backups. The cloud is wonderfully convenient but it is also magical between what happens behind the curtains and those pesky T&C that can ambush you.
For those not famiiar with the differences between IMAP and POP, the former is essentially like a web browser looking at your email on their server; the latter downloads the email to your PC. Of course with the latter you need to be managing your PC so it is more ‘collaborative’ with you having responsibility.
Thunderbird also has an option for POP whereby it downloads the email to your PC where you view it (and store it), but it also leaves it on the host server where you can look at it via IMAP or web access on another PC. That can be another level of data security.
