Last week, Google launched a new powerful free email service called GMAIL with 1 GB of memory and a searchable data base of your old emails. Sounds great Huh? However, it has one major drawback, and all should be aware that Google is reading the emails generated and received on this service. Be careful! Here is an excerpt from the Privacy Forum about Google email:

"Google (or ISPs) getting into the business of routinely scanning users'
e-mail for "interesting" keywords is of staggering import, even if the reason
is "merely" to insert ads (or spam control, for that matter, though Google's
plan to act as a massive long-term e-mail repository ups the risk ante
considerably over e-mail pass-through ISPs).

What would Google's legal responsibilities and actions be if they "stumbled"
across discussions of apparently illegal activity (everything from overdue
library books to adultery to murder...), or terrorism, or illicit pornography?  
Since they've apparently opened the surveillance box, it's quite possible
they'd be legally required to report everything that might even potentially
fall into questionable categories.  

This of course would include all the false alarms that would be generated by
innocent messages that only looked suspicious but really weren't, not to
mention purposely faked messages spiked with likely nasty keywords to try upset
the system.  Even with the best of motives, do we really want Google or ISPs
becoming the commercial equivalent of Total Information Awareness?
We all want to prevent crime and terrorism, but is the creation of massive
surveillance machines in the guise of free e-mail services the proper way to do
so in our society?

And what of the proprietary information that will inevitably find its way into
Google's scannable e-mail treasure chest?  "Innocent" scanning could reveal all
sorts of goodies.  (I've thought in the past about all those new product names
and future trademarks that first drop into Google's logs when initial searches
are performed...)  Can we trust Google not to abuse this potentially lucrative
power?  For now the answer is probably yes, but market forces make the future
anything but certain."

If you have or respond to Google emails, be aware that your communication may not be private.See the many commentaries from across the world. Just search "Google."

people's emails so that they can have pop-up ads for the "right" product appear?

Keep your eyes off my emails!!!!

No human eye will read your email.  Only computer software will search for keywords and assign ads.

Here's an important quote from their privacy statement:

"Google will never sell, rent or share your personal information, including your Gmail address or email content, with any third parties for marketing purposes without your express permission."

Can you imagine the number of emails that would have to be sorted through? And for what?  Key words that also appear in emails between people in some sort of dating service to say nothing of the porn spam I get sometimes? Due to the discreet nature of communications with providers in general, these emails are harder to spot amongst the noise except they are going to addresses like "[email protected]" which is unlikely to be my penpal.  I really would not worry about this.  By the way, is Yahoo, exite or the others any more secure?  I doubt it.

I quit using any free email programs, when i found hushmail. It encrypts your emails and protects where the email came from.(IP address) I would encourage everyone to try this email program . They have a free version and a pay per year program depends on storeage requirements.

From Googles Privacy Statement under heading "When we may disclose your personal information."

"... we do not disclose your personally identifying information to third parties unless we believe we are required to do so by law or have a good faith belief that such access, preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, ..."

I once sent an email to a woman I know(new to the escort business) about TER with the link to the front page and the email bounced back saying that TER is not allowed to be sent to someone with an AOL email account

I had to break the link so she could get it

I'm wondering if Google would begin to censor emails like AOL does?

I've been following this also.

Google is putting this out front because they are going to
use it to sell some sort of targeted advertising.

How do the other mail services (e.g. hotmail, yahoo, aol)
flag spam?  They have to look at something.  Is it the sending
address?  The content of the header?  The content of the
message?

It is not at all clear.

fr

I liked hushmail until they deleted my account and customer service would not respond to my queries of restoring the account.  Was there something in the mail they didn't approve of?  Don't know --- they never returned any of my email.

-Hoot.

I believe gmail is stilly strictly in beta testing and not for general use.

-Hoot.

http://privacy.yahoo.com/

I think any company based in the United States HAS to say up front that they will comply with authorities should an investigation come up where your mail could be evidence.

Best,
Tamara

While the idea of both of those email accounts are good, they are very poor functionally. Ziplip, IMO and experience is so bad, I don't know how anyone can stand it.
I certainly don't recommend.

I have a friend who says the same of Hushmail.

Folks, if you are really that interested in protecting your mail, don't let any third party business do the work for you.  Your best bet is getting a program like PGP and then sending your messages out via offshore anonymous remailers.

PGP encryptions is virtually unbreakable, provided you don't store your private key where anybody can access it.  I had it on removable media and not on my HD where anybody could find it.

Anonymous remailers strip all header information, including sending/receiving host and IPs, from the message before forwarding it to the next receiving host.  They are best used in chains.

Offshore remailers work best as they aren't bound by the same laws as those that are operating within the confines of US territory.

All this used together, along with careful release of your public key to those you want to have it, result in mail that for all intents and purposes is undecipherable (except by those MEANT to read it) and untraceable.

There is a learning curve, but it's short and not that painful.

Reoes your Daddy know you're on the computer?

Yeah.. who's your daddy?

This is not just a Google issue.  You probably have no idea what systems your email passes through, and even less idea what, if anything, they do with it.

Encrypt!

Providers, put your PGP public key on your website.  Look at it this way: it's a great way to show, rather than just tell, that you care about privacy and discretion.