Techocian has also got a point there... Actually people who are actually that dense as to use a unsafe programme to send private and confidential stuff... I have nothing to say... I still have to impliment that they MUST put up a sign that states that they collect and store our private information so as not to breach on millions of peoples' worth of human rights!

hmmm... this is interesting because you know what i couldn't care less if they use the contents of my e-mail for coperate research and advertising. there is nothing in there to hide.

As long as you are consenting to this during the sign-up then it is a free service, you cannot expect them not to have a business motive behind the idea, they are however a business.

Personally, I can see nothing wrong with Gmail doing this. Its better to have small, relevant, unobtrusive ads down the side of an email than those gigantic hideous things every page of yahoo and hotmail seem to be plastered in...

What everyone seems to forget is that all these other email services scan our emails too. Spam checkers, virus scanning. Its exactly the same as checking the mail to see if it's spam, except instead it being moved to a seperate folder marked SPAM, we get little relevant ads down the side.

I can't see anything wrong with it what so ever.

but consider this: terrorists may use gmail to spread it's information, and they can use gmail as ther primary communication service. How to control that? Im sure there is some system filter integrated which scans user's email for targeted words: like 'kill', 'president' and such things.

Google is a publically traded comany now. Thought investrs care a whole lot about money I doubt they would let Google do anything immoral nor illegal like that. Google is looked up to in the technology fireld. Where once all the greatest minds looked to be with microsoft it seems that Google is the collecting point of minds and innovation. I seriously doubt they would use any of your information beyond the ads.

One thing to keep in mind though is that Google is no more of a threat that AOL. At least Google does not claim all information passed through their services to be their own intelectual property such as AOL where: "You waive any right to privacy. You waive any right to inspect or approve uses of the content or to be compensated for any such uses" Was reading an article and they highlited the TOS that states the terms give AOL ownership of "all right, title and interest in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created by AOL using or incorporating this content into their services."

"In addition, by posting content on an AIM Product, you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this content in any medium"


Now if any thing is a threat to privacy I would say aOL moreso than google with not only its email but AIM aswell. Its TOS clearly states that by using it you "You waive any right to privacy"... At least Google's TOS says no such thing as far as I know and they are willing to make reassurances rather than claiming National Security is the reasoning behind the invasion of your privacy... Damn Patriot Act...

That is really scary! I used to use AOL for everything. My old emails could be being used for some publicity stunt in Mexico or something.

I really ought to read the small print on things I sign up for...

Why is everyone anti-gmail, and going on about Gmail not being private, when AOL does this? There should be a massive anti AOL movement or soemthing!

This guy has got a point (I use it and love it!)

Everybody loves Gmail. I love it. My friends love it. It's clean, fast, reliable, and easy to use. Great features. I doubt they would do something like that, and if they did I'd still probably use it.

I personally don't mind the ads. Look, Google's providing such a wonderful and features-packed email service for free and it's fair that they find a way to monetize their free email accounts they provide and make money. In any case, the ads are targeted and not like pop-ups which are totally a waste of our time.

I heard somewhere that Gmail's privacy policy is so messed up because it's just comming out of it's beta stage and still in 'testing' stages, and they need as much info as they can get to determine the best ways to go about providing their service. If they see that their service is being adversly used for things like warez (they have huge upload size) on a large scale, they'll know that they're going about their service in the wrong ways. I seriously doubt that they'd use our information for spamming and so forth... coz then no one will use gmail!

They havnt tried to hide the fact that our personal info is being used, and I seriously doubt that someone out there is going through everyone's individual emails and keeping up-to-date with our affairs and soap-opera lives we discuss in emails. Personally, I like the what it offers and all the little nifty features it has. I'm not doing anything illegal over my email, so I have nothing to worry about.