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If Google isn't actually reading the e-mails, they're just scanning them via computer, I don't have any problems at all. Besides, Google is a company, not a government organization, if you don't like it, don't use it, it's that simple.
Surely, to "read" and to "scan" by computer are one and the same thing? Unless by "read," you mean employing temps to sit there actually going through the messages looking for seditious words.
Governments have, do and will use commercial data for surveillance. So the distinction between governments and companies isn't a distinction at all.
E-mail has never been secure. If somebody wanted to read my e-mails, I imagine it would be pretty easy. But why make it easier for them by putting the messages all in one place, under the control of one company? And once I have handed them over, I can never take them back. Never. No matter who ended up owning Google.
It's not the same as your Barbelith info. Somewhere inside the Barbelith database is my e-mail address and what could be deduced as my home IP address. But it's pretty much a dead end. Knowing this info will not necessarily give you the names and addresses of all my family, friends and other contacts. E-mail content does exactly that.
However, paranoia aside, I already have a better e-mail solution. I use an e-mail client that downloads all my messages to my hard drive. That's a lot more than 1GB of storage. I can search for text strings using that client (Eudora seems a lot quicker than Outlook at doing that, BTW) and if I wanted to run a more sophisticated query, I'm sure I could lash something together. And it works off-line. No matter where I am, what technical problems arise, or if I simply haven't paid my phone bill, I will always have access to my personal correspondence and all the information therein.
And, on a simple, consumer level, supposing I later change my mind, decide I don't like Google and want to move to Yahoo or whoever. How easy will it be to transfer across 1GB of e-mails? Not easy at all, I'll wager, and certainly not free.
So no, I don't think I will use G-mail, thanks. |
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) involved in any great conspiration, so I'm not paranoid about privacy. And I prefer Google selected text ads to the generic html (¡or even flash!) ads from other free accounts. I even prefer it to the message that gets attached in all my corporative mails: