Favorite free e-mail options (with some conditions)?

[Webecedarian]

The constant question:

I'm looking for a good, simple go-to option to replace Hotmail and Inbox.

My main requirements are:
-That it be free
-That it have an inactivity limit of at least four months
-That it not require a previous email or telephone number

It would also be nice if it had a good reputation for privacy.

 

[EQ Admin]

What is your definition of good reputation for privacy?

As far as free goes I think Gmail is great, and I tolerate Outlook.com as a secondary account.

In any circumstance, I think that if the email is important to you, it's also worth registering your own domain name and mapping that to a service so you don't have the risk of possibly losing access to a free email account.

 

[Webecedarian]

I think that both Gmail (Google) and Hotmail/Outlook (Microsoft) have poor reputations for privacy, and Hotmail/Outlook violates my third condition by requiring an existing account or telephone.

I don't have any interest in having my own domain, but your comment "if the email is important to you" puzzles me. I'm new here, but I would have thought that if anyone posts here at all it would because email is important to them.

 

[Belstone]

What is your definition of good reputation for privacy?

As far as free goes I think Gmail is great, and I tolerate Outlook.com as a secondary account.

In any circumstance, I think that if the email is important to you, it's also worth registering your own domain name and mapping that to a service so you don't have the risk of possibly losing access to a free email account.

How does one do that? I'd like to use my own domain name with an email service (preferably free but I'm open to other options) but can't figure out how. I signed up with GMX.com but there doesn't seem to be a way to use my own domain name. (Sorry if this isn't the proper place to put this question.)