Originally the email through the cable provider was a private company. The owner died, and it got sold to Charter, or did they call it Optimum, and then they tried to merge it into Spectrum. That's when we got our own domain name. Once in a while, if I have to log into Spectrum for anything TV/Internet/Phone related, I will use that portal to check the email box while I'm there, but it's never been given out to anyone.

I set up a yahoo account as a burner to trash when I retire. I set up a different one for yahoo groups, which are defunct now; that group I joined moved to groups.io. Last Sunday, I used it to set up a Facebook account for my cat, who is selling my extra snowblower on that marketplace.

I've been assigned email addresses from various job positions and functions over the years, and had to use Thunderbird to send from Quickbooks on behalf of one of my clients (monthly invoicing). Otherwise, I only use web portals and not any desktop client tool at all. That way, no one can harvest my contacts.

Get your own domain.