Re: In With the New E-Mail, Out With the Old

tanstafl wrote:

>> Be aware that your gigs of Gmail is subject to general purpose data >> mining and/or any other use they deem lucrative upon a simple >> unilateral change in their terms of service. > I feel SO threatened. Guess I'll make sure not to use gmail for any > of my illegal activities. They DO have a DELETE button, don't they? > Lena

Indeed they do. And when you press it: POOF it's gone - from your view :-( However, your mail is still on their backup servers. Their announced practice (circa 2004) is to allow the data to purge over time as the generational media expire. As long as that practice remains in effect you can chill out and not feel 'so' threatened -- some but not 'so'.

The problem with a business practice is that it can be changed at any time without notice -- you and I can assume they still have that same practice, but we don't know. If that practice were to change, 'so' would be quite appropriate since the only reason for change would be the onset of data mining (in point of fact, mining could commence without permanently storing your mail).

This isn't a diatribe against Google. One of their guiding mottos is 'don't be evil'. I've not seen a case where Google has been caught with their hand in the cookie jar -- so they have the benefit of the doubt. Real Networks is evil, Doubleclick is evil, but not Google -- yet. Data mining, enriched by the contents of person mail, can build personal dossiers that have enormous economic value. The business case is compelling. When they do, will that be evil? To me, certainly. To a corporate executive, the driving ethic is to maximize value and revenue -- failure to do so is evil. Viewpoint is everything -- and we need to guide our decisions and practices accordingly.

An interesting observation is those who do not value their privacy -- tend to treat those who do derisively. Your attempt at sarcasm, exemplified by 'illegal activities' betrays your failure to grasp that many non-criminals simply value their privacy.

Back to Sam. As a professional journalist, I'm sure he would walk the plank to jail rather than betray the confidence of a source. Yet, he sees nothing wrong with using his 2GB Gmail account as archival storage for his (your) email. After all it's free ... right? TANSTAAFL. Sam doesn't understand. You don't understand (apparently).

-- Pete Gebel pfgebel(deletethis)@crisperiodcom Have the best day possible -- all things considered

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tanstafl
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