RE: [Thinkpad] Re: OT GMail invite

Many are attracted to the idea of web based email which can be easily
accessed from anywhere and is in principle a protection from worms, virii,
etc. Gmail is expected to be a particularly good implemenmtation.

The privacy concerns are there, of course. But any email handled by any ISP
can be held, inspected, analyzed, etc. at the whim of the ISP and/or the
gummint. IMHO any email I send should be considered as having been
published to the net with a 'net retention' of forever. I have no
expectations/illusions of guaranteed privacy.

jim

-----Original Message-----
From: thinkpad-bounces@stderr.org [mailto:thinkpad-bounces@stderr.org] On
Behalf Of Michael Edwards
Sent: Saturday, September 04, 2004 6:07 AM
To: ThinkPad
Subject: Re: [Thinkpad] Re: OT GMail invite

[Nonny Mouse:]

>OK - that's all of them until they give out the next batch.

     I'm just a bit curious about this. Is there something especially
desirable about having a GMail address, such that people are eager to queue
up for one as soon as possible? Is it just the amount of storage space, or
are there special features, or what? Or is it a brand-name appeal?
     And what about the so-called dark side of this? I read articles that
made GMail out to be a kind of super Big Brother, keeping their own copies
of all your e-mail for ever, even if you delete it, and using that
information for their own purposes, to track your activities, sell it on to
others, and so on.
(For example, see http://gmail-is-too-creepy.com.)
     Perhaps this already goes on to some extent anyway, but what I read
seemed to portray this as a whole new order of privacy invasion.
     Any thoughts on this, anyone? Is there something especially good about
GMail? Is the supposed dark side of it real?

                         Regards,
                          Michael Edwards.

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Received on Sun Sep 5 00:03:03 2004