Gmail - 1gb storage, only costs your privacy?

[Baser-X]

Sure it costs nothing and offers 1 GB of storage, but Google's newly announced Gmail service gives some privacy advocates the creeps. A program would scan missives for keywords and serve ads based on the content. By Kim Zetter.

Full article (http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,62917,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2)

[renegade600]

Sure it costs nothing and offers 1 GB of storage, but Google's newly announced Gmail service gives some privacy advocates the creeps. A program would scan missives for keywords and serve ads based on the content. By Kim Zetter.

Full article (http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,62917,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2)


The ads will be based on content of the emails you recieve. That means if I had an account there, the ads in my emails will have something about expanding a certain body part since that is 90 percent of the spam I get. My mom would get interesting emails...

Aint no way I will sign up for this since there will be absolutely no privacy. You have to have cookies and Javascript enable, and there will be no pop3 access so my antispam utilities will not work with it.

[tramtwo]

I don't need any more spam. I have been as enlarged as I am going to get. ;)

__________________
Click---->http://tram2.com/images/post/cthnews.gif (http://www.cybertechhelp.com/news/index.php)

[renegade600]

This (http://news.com.com/2100-1024_3-5191028.html?tag=nefd.top) is the latest information on google gmail. Looks like they might be making some changes to their plans.

[enat66]

Personnally I think I might use it because I have nothing really to hide, I'd only use the email account to talk with friends, I don't care if the whole world can see that Johnny has a crush on Jane. :)

[renegade600]

Would you really since at this time you are unable to completely delete the email. what if someone spammed you with child porn?

[jdc2000]

I would use gmail, but all data would be encrypted. Their advertising keyword search would be useless on data like that. If their requirements did not permit encryption (either of the e-mail text or attachments), then I would not use it.

[zipulrich]

Do what I did. Get an account at SpyMac (http://www.spymac.com/).
Problem solved.

[lufbra]

Looks interesting, Zip!!! :)

[IRISH_GUY]

Thats what i did[Spymac] :evillaugh

[Baser-X]

http://slate.msn.com/id/2098946/

A positive review of gmail.

[jdc2000]

Not surprising that Slate would give it a positive review.

[30111987]

hmm, its just google text ads like the ones here, nobody will be reading your emails, it's just a bot
my only problem is it appears you wont be able to delete your emails for good, this is in conflict with some EU regs...

it will have a built in anti spam thing anyway, though i shan't use it for serious emails, just friends etc

[muzikislyf]

After everything I have read about it, I will more than likely use Gmail. I have nothing to hide. I'd only use it for emails to friends and family though. But thats all I use hotmail for right now. I would never use hotmail for preofessional emails either.

[rockboy]

...my only problem is it appears you wont be able to delete your emails for good,...

Initially, that was my main reservation. It's clarified here:

http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/more.html

Does Gmail intend to keep copies of my email even after I've deleted it, or closed my account?

No. Google keeps multiple backup copies of messages so that we can recover them in case of errors or system failure. Even if a message has been deleted or an account is no longer active, messages may remain on our backup systems for some period of time. This is standard practice in the email industry, which Gmail and other major webmail services follow in order to provide a reliable service for users. However, Google will make reasonable efforts to remove deleted information from our systems as quickly as is practical.

My misconception came from reading news sources that didn't carefully read (or report) what was on the Google pages. Google had said that you no longer have to delete because there is so much space available. I don't think they ever said you can't delete mail. I wanted to know specifically if it could be deleted. That's why I went right to the Google pages to see what it says instead of relying on someone else's biased reporting.

It's not going to be available for some time yet. There's going to be lots more written and I think it will end up being a lot more positive as time goes on. I'll probably get at least one Gmail account as soon as they are available.

[renegade600]

What google will do is still up in the air. It already has made serveral changes since it was first announced - note the date at the bottom of their gmail faq pages. They originally said that you can delete emails but there will be residual of it available. Google needs that residual to it can target advertising more effectively. Recently I read that it may even include pop mail account.

Just remember, whatever they do, if they are offering 1gig of space for emails, they have to pay for it somehow and the only way to do this is to somehow target advertising to the individuals so advertisers will buy. Maybe their toolbar will also undergo changes to help accomplished this.

What I am curious about is how they are going to deal with spam and how they are going to advertise without including spam in their profile about the account holder.

At this time I have no intensions of getting a gmail account.

[renegade600]

see this link (http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1586090,00.asp) for a review of gmail and some screen shots.