Re: [tlug] gmail (was: Is Linux Helping MS to make Windows better?)

[Jonathan Byrne <jq@example.com>]

On Thu, May 06, 2004 at 02:02:35AM +0900, Ian Barwick wrote:

>Regarding privacy - I only use it for mailing lists and the like,
>which tend to get publicly archived anyway.

You're missing the issue, I think.  Sure, you only use it for things that
are publicly archived anyway, but so what?  It's not what you *write*
that they concerned with as much as what you *read*.  Now, I know
that a great many people  won't really care that Google builds a profile
on their reading habits (or that said profile could be either subpoenaed
or outright illegally obtained) any time during its retention period.
It kind of gives me the creeps, though.

Now, if Gmail is really good and they said "We just can't make this
free, if you want it you have to pay a yearly fee for it, but
we don't read your mail" I'd be willing to try it and actually pay 
for it if I found it worthwhile.  Paying for it by having them read
my mail and deliver contractually-agreed spam based on that mail seems
too expensive to me.

Jonathan
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