> for instance, they search it to provide targeted ads and have said they > reserve the right to do just that.
I guess so. I really don't see that as any more invasive than the spam filtering most free mail accounts provide these days. Certainly if google chose to abuse their power they will have an enourmous amount of data on an individual but I should think any ISP could just as easily do this. > is this any better/worse than any other free webmail? i wouldn't be surprised > if the answer is "no", and i didn't say that it was any worse either. just > that they don't respect one's privacy. Again I fail to see why Googles use of machine's to target ads to you based on your e-mail content is any more of an invasion of privacy than blocking messages that look like spam or providing server-side filtering of any sort. Yes a computer is reading your mail but that is pretty much a given regardless of which mail provider you are using. Anyways. Not trying to get into an argument here. I've just been a little suprised at all the opposition to gmail by various privacy groups and thought I'd ask you. I've read a variety of rants/posts about it but most of them seem to neglect the fact that computers are regularly scanning mail content anyways. > i simply noted that everyone's clamouring for access to a mail site that > doesn't even respect your privacy and which has created an artificial sense > of scarcity and therefore heightened demand. i find that humorous, except for > all the "wanna invite?" msgs i've received since gmail went up which i find > as funny as the rest of the spam i get. I agree. Google sure did an amazing job of building hype about gmail. There are plenty of other large free mail sites but gmail's invitations made it a lot more exciting than it really was. Jeff
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