> terms-of-use page and once on their privacy page. Google's language > means that all Gmail account holders have consented to allow Google to > show any and all email in their Gmail accounts to any official from any > government whatsoever, even when the request is informal or extralegal, > at Google's sole discretion." > > Sure, any of the other providers would probably turn over your email or > let the FBI hook up a carnivore box to their servers if they got a > subpoena. But what this looks like is a blanket go-ahead from google to > allow the feds to search their entire database for anything they want. > Just seems a little too likely to the conspiracy theorists that maybe > Google isn't really totally privately-run.. > >
This is from Yahoo's "Privacy" policy: "We believe it is necessary to share information in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of Yahoo!'s terms of use, or as otherwise required by law." Yahoo doesn't specifically mention "government" but with the above statement it seems very implied to me. I think yahoo and any other big services probably do watch for keywords either with their own technology or something else. I just don't think google is so creppy just because they are pretty much telling people that they might be watching for keywords. At least they warn you ahead of time! bb
