iamtrip Posted September 10, 2004 Share Posted September 10, 2004 How naive. Based on terms and conditions: As consideration for using the Service, you agree and understand that Google will display ads and other information adjacent to and related to the content of your email. Personal information collected by Google may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Google Inc. or its agents maintain facilities. By using Gmail, you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country. Google also reserves the right to access, read, preserve, and disclose any information as it reasonably believes is necessary...(e) protect the rights, property or safety of Google, its users and the public. Google reserves the right at all times to remove or refuse to distribute any content on the Service You do, however, agree that Google may monitor, edit or disclose your personal information, including the content of your emails, if required to do so in order to comply with any valid legal process or governmental request (such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, or court order), or as otherwise provided in these Terms of Use and the Gmail Privacy Policy. ***Taken from gmail-is-too-creepy.com*** 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. Other countries may even lack this basic protection, and Google's databases are distributed all over the world. Since the Patriot Act was passed, it's unclear whether this ECPA protection is worth much anymore in the U.S., or whether it even applies to email that originates from non-citizens in other countries. Its not what they actually put in terms and conditions, it's what they leave out. ***Taken from gmail-is-too-creepy.com*** The phrasing and qualifiers in the Gmail privacy policy are creepy enough, but nothing in any of Google's policies or public statements applies to those of us who don't have Gmail accounts. Google has not even formally stated in their privacy policy that they will not keep a list of keywords scanned from incoming email, and associate these with the incoming email address in their database. 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. I don't think there's any doubt in google's intentions. This passage is taken from Gmail's old privacy policy, which has since been reworded (rather well) to create the impression that you seem to have fallen for: For example, we may disclose how frequently the average Google user visits Google, or which other query words are most often used with the query word "Linux." Please be aware, however, that we will release specific personal information about you if required to do so (Don't believe me? Consult http://www.google.com/privacy_archive.html Hope this clears up some issues you may have overlooked. Lets also remember its not what they put in terms and conditions, it's what they leave out. Consult this site for a lot more in depth information: http://www.gmail-is-too-creepy.com http://www.gmail-is-too-creepy.com/gprofile.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GothiX Posted September 11, 2004 Share Posted September 11, 2004 Hotmail has about the exact same terms and conditions, yet a lot of people use it. The difference? GMail is new, so GMail is evil. Oh, god, this is getting so annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alegis Posted September 11, 2004 Share Posted September 11, 2004 And about the ads thing, you do know its done entirely by computers right? And i couldnt care less if some weirdo from gmail would be reading my mail, as long as they dont give the email adresses to third parties, which they don't (spam). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CapNColostomy Posted September 11, 2004 Share Posted September 11, 2004 Well, whether it's private or not, I still don't see what all the big stink is about, like I said a page or two back. It's friggin email. "Hey! I got a bazillion invites! Fill my PM bocks up and hurry, before they're all gone! Oh noes!!!" and "Hey! Howsabout inviting teh me! I gots no invites yet! Oh noes!!!" That's funny to me, because...well, I hate email. I find it completely useless and obsolete, since there are a gazillion-bajillian instant messenger programs out there. But that's just me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GothiX Posted September 12, 2004 Share Posted September 12, 2004 If you need to send multiple people an invitation for a party (just to mention something), e-mail works pretyy well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZBomber Posted September 12, 2004 Share Posted September 12, 2004 Originally posted by CapNColostomy Well, whether it's private or not, I still don't see what all the big stink is about, like I said a page or two back. It's friggin email. "Hey! I got a bazillion invites! Fill my PM bocks up and hurry, before they're all gone! Oh noes!!!" and "Hey! Howsabout inviting teh me! I gots no invites yet! Oh noes!!!" That's funny to me, because...well, I hate email. I find it completely useless and obsolete, since there are a gazillion-bajillian instant messenger programs out there. But that's just me. Lets see. Let's say that a Telephone would be equal to an Instant Messenger. If you call, and the person is not home, no one will answer and get your message. Same with the messenger. If they are not logged on, you can't get your message to them. Then we have answering machines and E-Mail. If the person is not home/online, we can leave a message for them. Thats why G-Mail pwns you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CapNColostomy Posted September 12, 2004 Share Posted September 12, 2004 Originally posted by ZBomber Lets see. Let's say that a Telephone would be equal to an Instant Messenger. If you call, and the person is not home, no one will answer and get your message. Same with the messenger. If they are not logged on, you can't get your message to them. Then we have answering machines and E-Mail. If the person is not home/online, we can leave a message for them. Thats why G-Mail pwns you. Erm...No. That's why I use unstant messengers that allow you to leave offline messages. Goofy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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