So I’ve seen a lot of posts on discussion boards and LJ, as well as websites, in which people are freaking out about how “evil” gmail is, and how Google is doing all these things wrong and how nobody should use it in the interests of protecting privacy.
And I’ve had about enough of this alarmist attitude that mostly comes from ignorance.
First of all, if you think your email is private NO MATTER WHAT SYSTEM YOU USE, you’re living in a dream world. Unless you encrypt your email using something like PGP, guess what? Email is a postcard. It’s sent through the Internet in clear text, and anyone who wants to can read it. The content of the message shows up in non delivery reports, mail server logs, and all sorts of other places you have no control over.
“But Mugsy!” you cry. “Google said they will keep my email box retained indefinitely! That means that when I delete an email, it’s still floating around on Gmail’s servers!”
Guess what, bucko? Your ISP backs up your mailbox to tape (if you’re lucky). And they have never told you what their retention policy is, have they? I bet if they got a court order, they’d be more than happy to pull back an offsite backup tape from 1999 and deliver you hot fresh inbox to the boys in black.
“OK, that’s fine,” you say. “But Google’s AdWords technology is *reading* every single email I receive! That is an invasion of my privacy!”
Well, first of all…how do you think that automatic spam filters work? That’s right. They read your email. But that’s a valid reason for reading your email.
You don’t think that the greasy haired mail admin at your company is reading emails sent and received by the hot secretary in Accounts Payable? I laugh derisively at you. Who’s being naive now, Kay?
I’ve worked at quite a few ISP’s, and in even more IT departments of large corporations (including one of the biggest in the world). And do you think that the mail admins there never read other people’s email? Or watched where they were browsing via the proxy server?
Email is never private. The sooner that people understand that and start using encryption for messages that MUST be private, the better we’ll be.
Google isn’t doing anything with Gmail that hasn’t been done before. The difference is, they’re being up front about it, so everyone thinks it is something new.
I’m not saying you should use Gmail. Do what you want. But please, be educated and get all the facts before raising the hue and cry.
Living Colour – Back In Black