A question

[emmagrant01]

What's the big deal about GMail? I keep seeing people on my f-list asking for and offering invites, and I have no idea why. When I first heard about the premise, and that Google would "read" the content of emails you send and receive to target advertising to you, etc., I thought, WTF? Why would anyone want to do that?

Clearly people did want to do it, since it quickly became the "it" new email address to have. I'm still skeptical, myself. I'll offer some interesting links, though. Some of these express views that are a bit paranoid, but are still intriguing:

GMail is too creepy

"If Google builds a database of keywords associated with email addresses, the potential for abuse is staggering. Google could grow a database that spits out the email addresses of those who used those keywords. How about words such as "box cutters" in the same email as "airline schedules"? Can you think of anyone who might be interested in obtaining a list of email addresses for that particular combination? 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?"

Things Google knows about you

"If you use a GMail account:
• Who you send emails to
• Who sends emails to you
• The contents of those emails
• The contents of all emails received from any mailing lists of which you are a member, even if they are private mailing lists."


Privacy subtleties of GMail

"Even so, people have a reaction to a 3rd party computer doing scans like this. If you were offered a service that saved you money by having your paper mail opened by robots for scanning, which then inserted new junk mail in your box based on what it found, you might get a bit creeped out. Go further and consider a service that gave you free phone calls if it could have speech-recognizing computers listen in and barge in with product offers related to your conversation? It's easy to imagine an unpleasant situation where you get invited to a gay wedding in Vancouver, and find with it in your mailbox brochures for gifts, Vancouver hotels and a free copy of Out magazine. People have extended that fear into the e-mail realm."

Comments

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

I brought all this up at the time it started, too, even though I do have a gmail. Apparently it's not too different from other free webmail services in the ToS, so you're not any less safe than if you use, say, Yahoo or Hotmail as your primary email. (I don't; I have earthlink and a couple of addresses attached to my own domain. The ToS is different if you actually pay for the service.)

So I wouldn't use gmail for anything incriminating. ;) It's really a good interface for mailing lists, though.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I love that icon.

I actually don't know if GMail is any more or less safe than anything else, but the idea of targeted marketing creeps me out a bit!

[helens78]

Better stop using Amazon, then. ;) All those "you might like" or "other people who bought this bought that" things are the same basic process -- data mining and targeted offers based on the information you give it, all connected to your username and order history. Data mining is a fantastic tool, you just have to choose the situations where you allow it to happen carefully. Or you have to make your decisions about where and when it's worth letting people mine data. Which, obviously, you've done here -- but targeted advertising is so much the wave of the future it's not even funny. Of course, the fact that people think it's "creepy" will probably make them create laws that say companies can't store data on consumers, which IMO is stupid -- like you and Sithdragn, people can choose not to use that service. It's like someone in this thread said -- the government's use is what really creeps me out. I'd love laws that say the government itself is forbidden from storing any data on its citizens, personally. *grin* Because while you can opt out of having a Gmail account or you can avoid using online vending services that store information on you, you can't tell the government "I'm sorry, but no, I do not want you looking at the books I've borrowed from the library this past year." If they want to pass a law that says they can do that, boom. Tough luck.

...*shakes head* I'm not quite sure how this got turned into a rant about the government. I think it's election season or something. *oy* *goes to sit down somewhere quiet*