I was looking at Gmail but I guess at this point you can't sign up yet. But I stumbled uopn this
http://gmail-is-too-creepy.com/
i was a little suspicious about the gmail idea when i first heard of it. but i couldn't really articulate it. this site tells you why it's not such a crash hot idea. any email i get from a gmail account i will use their convenient cut n paste:
Dear Gmail user: Due to privacy considerations, we cannot respond unless you resend your email from a different account. For more information, please visit www.gmail-is-too-creepy.com
Uhhhg.
"Google's policies are essentially no different than the policies of Microsoft, Yahoo, Alexa and Amazon"
Exactly, so it doesn't matter what email you use, even your ISP's!
"After 180 days in the U.S., email messages lose their status as a protected communication under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and become just another database record. This means that a subpoena instead of a warrant is all that's needed to force Google to produce a copy. "
This applies to all email, not just gmail. Anyway, just don;t do illegal emails then
"They've said that their advertisers won't get personally identifiable information from email, but that doesn't mean that Google won't keep this information for possible future use. Google has never been known to delete any of the data they've collected, since day one. For example, their cookie with the unique ID in it, which expires in 2038, has been tracking all of the search terms you've ever used while searching their main index. "
This is a scare tactic. They need someone to prove what information google is storing and where it is coming from. Plus due to pass laws there's only so much information they can store on someone. And any information they store you gave them. Plus the cookie thing is how google ads work and what makes them ingenius. No useless ads.
" Or how about "mp3" with "download"? Since the RIAA has sent subpoenas to Internet service providers and universities in an effort to identify copyright abusers, why should we expect Gmail to be off-limits?"
Again, not subject to JUSt gmail.
"We don't use Gmail, but it is safe to assume that the ad matching is no better in Gmail, than it is in news articles that use contextual ad feeds from Google. Here's a screen shot that shows an inappropriate placement of Google ads in a news article. We also read about a lawyer who is experimenting with Gmail. He sent himself a message, and discovered that the law practice footer he uses at the bottom of all of his email triggered an ad for a competing law firm."
The screenshot shows the ads are working. Are those links illegal drug companies? If not I don't see how it is inappropriate.
The lawyer thing, then his firm better pay google for mare advertising than their competitors. I don't see that as wrong. The google ads worked. If his firm isn't advertising as good they aren;t going to get the customers.
"Our last example shows three ads fed by Google at the bottom of a Washington Post column titled "Gmail leads way in making ads relevant." The columnist argues that Google's relevant ads improve the web, and therefore she finds nothing objectionable about Gmail. These Google-approved ads offer PageRank for sale, something which only a year ago, Google would have considered high treason. Yes, these ads are "relevant" -- the column is about Google, and the ads are about PageRank. But here's the point: A relevant ad that shows poor judgment is much worse than an irrelevant ad that shows poor judgment. The ads at the bottom of her column disprove her pro-Google arguments. She has no control over this, and is probably not even aware that it happened."
Ummm, does this person know that pagerank is OWNED BY GOOGLE! It's how google's search works. You could buy a higher pagerank to get yourself on the first page of search for a certain phrase. It's a google service being advertised by google when the article is about how good the google ad service is. All these services are tied together. How is this poor judgement?
I'm sorry, but this whole article is just a scare tactic. Kinda like the tactics "natural" products use to slam doctors and products. They don't back up their information iwith hard fact, just scare tactic opinions. Note they omit ALOT of information. Like the washington post artcicle, does it mention pagerank? It might explain why you get that type of add then. But, probably due to legal reasons, they couldn;t show the whole article.
You can take any set of statistics and make them look good for your cause buy spinning the points that support your ideas and omitting the ones that don't. I mean, why should you believe that website?
http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/GmailLetter.htmI love some of the statements there.
"First, Google has proposed scanning the text of all incoming emails for ad placement. The scanning of confidential email violates the implicit trust of an email service provider. Further, the unlimited period for data retention poses unnecessary risks of misuse."
Well duh, if you want security in email use a pop account with pgp. plus the scanning is for displaying ads on the same page as the email, the ads aren;t being sent anywhere.
"Second, Google's overall data retention and correlation policies are problematic in their lack of clarity and broad scope. Google has not set specific, finite limits on how long it will retain user account, email, and transactional data"
Asl Google then. This is one of the first things my mom noticed about gmail. She emailed them. They said the would have a transition period and you can retain your information if service changes (IE you have to pay for it).
The whole letter is aimed at the fact that gmail scans your email to produce the ads. They say that means they need to store information in the email to create the ad stream. no they don't, the email is being stored on an email server like any other email. And to make relavent ads popup you just need to corrolate the email text keywords witht he ad keywords which can easily be done as the html for the webpage is being generated.
"Currently, individuals may have the understanding that Google
Home
Help
Search
Login
Register
Send this topic
Print
Topic: What do you like about gmail? (Read 4085 times)
