Submit Hint Search The Forums LinksStatsPollsHeadlinesRSS
14,000 hints and counting!


Click here to return to the 'Use google mail' hint
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Use google mail
Authored by: Blah on Jun 30, '05 07:52:33PM
Thank goodness somebody gets it! "Public" servers, for mail, IM, etc., are exactly that: public. Every time you use one of these servers you are giving information to a 3rd party about one of your "friends", typically without their permission.

Would you walk into a Walmart or Starbucks and fill out someone else's personal information and post it on the bulletin board? For any purpose? When you send email with personal information (what that consists of is up to each person to decide!), especially from a public server, you're infringing on the other party's privacy. How rude.

Obviously the public servers serve a purpose, but people use them willy-nilly for any old thing, and all that information gets stored and mined (by most providers, not just gmail). You think your IM conversations aren't saved in some huge archives? You don't care? How about all the people you IM and email? Did you bother to ask?

And "services" (purposely in quotes) like Plaxo are just plain evil. They encourage you to put other people's personal information into their databases and (last I checked) don't provide any way to remove it - ever. Wonder what they do with all that info....

Bottom line: ALWAYS ASK IN ADVANCE before you put anyone ELSE'S information online. That goes for .mac servers too. Do you have your address book online or backed up online? Is it encrypted? Did you ask every single person in it if they wanted their personal information made available to other party(s)?

Grrr, better stop before I start frothing.... :-)

There is no such thing as a free meal. Your communication with Gmail may be safe, but the data you put there are not. If you, like me, do most of your communication via email, your entire life will be there for Google to mine. If you have exhibitionistic tendencies, go for it.

Unfortunately, you also drag all people you communicate with into this. Google is the only free email service provider that explicitly states that they will mine your data. I myself use a small community-owned internet service provider who I know and trust. My service may not have SSL, but at least it respects my privacy.


[ Reply to This | # ]
Use google mail
Authored by: friedguy on Jun 30, '05 10:17:35PM

I guess my stupid question is: what are they going to do with that information? I understand where you are coming from and what you are saying, but have you ever been contacted by a email server because you sent to email to someone who uses there "services"? I sure haven't and I highly doubt that google is going there every email just to find information to exploit. I really wouldn't be too worried about this.

I could, however, be missing your point. For the moment I just don't feel your concern.



[ Reply to This | # ]