Google Gets the Message, Launches Gmail

I'm with you mine runs at 7 megs and that's the limit of when they bounce and won't let you send

Here's the privacy policy, specifically (found in Craven's link.)

http://www.google.com/gmail/help/privacy.html

I think I could stomach that.

HEY!!!!!!!!!

OK, that's FUNNY!

Hamsters love April Fool's day, eh?

I wouldn't mind using it, but would never send any important email to a gmail account.

Think of it like this, when I email a client, my competitors ads will be displayed.

So for example, you have a business where you sell candles. When you email any of your customers ads for other candle stores will be displayed.

In that regard, not good. Nobody wants to deliver targeted ads for their competitors with their email communications to their clients.

Furthermore, it will be very easy to create the illusion of reading your mail.

Let's say you get an A2K update. Anyone whose gotten one knows what templated text is in there. They can target an ad specifically to members reading A2K email updates.

So for, example if A2K were to send an update to a gmail account (it won't, as gmail will be blocked) the reader could see an ad saying "hi there, checking your A2K email again? Click here to sign in" or some other joke/prank.

There's too many ways this can be abused. Not for privacy reasons but because it would be so easy to dupe people with.

CdK, care to address the unusual visuals on the site??

Another abuse:

Target negative text to your name.

e.g. Fred Ggguuutt has a rare name. If someone gets mad at him they can target his name in ads.

So any time Fred sends mail to a gmail user, he might also be delivering the negative ad his enemy has targeted to his name.

What do you mean?

nevermind......................

A question:

The main privacy concern I have is that it could become a law enforcement/ Patriot Act sort of thing... bad people are planning bad things and we need access!

But what I'm not sure about is the technical aspects of whether they already do, now.

Law enforcement already can demand access to your email, but if this were abused they could use it to actually discover people to demand information on.

Currently, when law enforecement is given access they need info on a specific user and then get access to their account.

The possibility for abuse in this case is that they might demand info on who's saying what in order to discover who to target.

But that's not my worry, I wouldn't mind having an account, what I will not do is send email to any gmail addresses.

People, just use POP3, or have your own e-mail.
Do not let them use you!!
And abuse you!!
Better yet, use the pen and paper not to print the e-mail junk from yahoo, but to write good old correspondency.

Huh-yeahh...

Like that'll ever catch on. :wink:

I still believe, tomorrow we can read at google : "Happy April Fools"!

Has A2K had to give out any info yet?

Nope. I don't expect to ever have to either (because we tend to keep the type of info taht would result in it off the boards, e.g. illegal activities, death threats etc).

Help yourself, Walter.


See if your hamster wants one, too.

Groups Slam Google's New E-Mail Service
Groups Slam Google's New E-Mail Service
Apr 7, 8:01 AM (ET)
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Google Inc. hails its new e-mail service as a breakthrough in online communication, but consumer watchdogs are attacking it as a creepy invasion of privacy that threatens to set a troubling precedent.

Although Google's free "Gmail" service isn't even available yet, critics already are pressuring the popular search engine maker to drop its plans to electronically scan e-mail content so it can distribute relevant ads alongside incoming messages.

Privacy activists worry that Gmail will comb through e-mail more intensively than the filters widely used to weed out potential viruses and spam.

Gmail opponents also want Google to revise a policy that entitles the company to retain copies of people's incoming and outgoing e-mail even after they close their accounts.

The e-mail scanning, which Google says will be handled exclusively by computers, has raised the most alarms, partly because it seeks to capitalize on messages sent by people without Gmail accounts.

Google intends to deliver ads by analyzing what's being discussed. For instance, an e-mail from one friend to another talking about an upcoming trip might include links to hotels or airlines.

Gmail has a "definite creepiness factor," said Ari Schwartz, associate director of the Center for Democracy and Technology.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google portrays the commercialization of e-mail as a small trade-off for a service that will give each user one gigabyte of storage - up to 500 times more than other leading free services - and provide a quicker, cleaner way to search e-mailboxes. Most e-mail messages opened on Gmail won't even contain ads, according to Google.

Nevertheless, critics say the free storage - roughly the equivalent of 500,000 pages - isn't worth compromising individual privacy rights.

"Consumers really need to look this gift horse in the mouth because it has rotten teeth and bad breath," said Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a watchdog group.

The Gmail backlash has inspired Orwellian comparisons likening Google to Big Brother, a disturbing development for a privately held company committed to making money "without doing evil."

"We are not going over to the dark side," said Wayne Rosing, Google's vice president of engineering. "Consumers can expect us to treat their e-mail as private and with a great deal of respect. I don't think we are doing anything unreasonable."

Gmail apparently doesn't bother everyone. Without providing specifics, Rosing said "hundreds of thousands" of people have registered with Gmail.com since Google announced the service last week. The company is still testing Gmail before offering it to the general public later this year.

The enthusiastic response to Gmail probably is being driven by the chance to get so much e-mail storage space for free, said Chris Hoofnagle, associate director for the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Hoofnagle estimates Google will pay about $10 annually for each gigabyte of storage the company gives away, a small price to build an audience likely to be prized by advertisers.

"It's not a great deal. Individuals would be throwing away the protections of their communications for a few dollars," Hoofnagle said. "We don't see this as any different than letting a company listen in on your phone conversations and letting the Postal Service open your mail."

Some parts of Gmail even could be illegal, said Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, a watchdog group in London.

Google's current Gmail policy advises potential users that "residual copies of e-mail may remain on our systems, even after you have deleted them from your mailbox or after the termination of your account."

Vast data collection like that appears to be a blatant violation of communication protections in United Kingdom and possibly elsewhere in Europe, Davies said. Privacy International already has filed a complaint against Gmail with United Kingdom regulators.

"If millions of people have their communication history kept on Google computers," Davies said, "then that storehouse becomes a very valuable source of information for a range of unintended consequences."

The watchdogs also worry that Gmail could give Google a way to individually identify the people using its search engine, placing a name with the material being sought.

Google already tracks most searches conducted at its site by tagging users' Web browsers with a chunk of data known as a "cookie." Google users are able to remove or block the cookie, although few do.

Rosing said there will be an information firewall separating Google's search engine from Gmail.

"We don't use the data collected on one service," he said, "to enhance another."
---------------------------------------------

On The Net:
http://www.gmail.com
http://www.privacyrights.org
http://www.privacyinternational.org
http://www.epic.org

Here's what it looks like. What it works like is still under study.



What it works like is still under study.

I've used it personally. It's got some really sweet features.

It also has a tremendous downside in that through teh use of targeted advertising others can send targeted messages to the people you send emails to.

Works like this, Google uses a spider to read all your emails and display relevant ads.

What someone can do is target a text string that is a known part of your email.

Say you sign all emails:

John Doe
Operations Manager of Foo company.

If someone wants to deliver messages together with your emails they just need to target an ad at those words.

So each time you send an email your enemy can display a massage when the reader is reading the email.

e.g.

"John Doe and Foo company are a bunch of liars!"

The technology is fantastic. The way the emails are displayed in threaded "conversations" is neat. The space will allure a bunch of users who have not figured out POP3 email yet. The search feature is pedestrian, and not any better than existing plugins for Outlook for example.

But Google will make a killing. People will not worry about the privacy concern and will eat it up.

Now I personally am not worried about the privacy. Google spiders reading my mail wouldn't bother me.

But I am worried about the easy exploit.

Targeting a message to my email recipients would be easy. The scenario that bothers me is the following:

Say an ex gets mad at John. The ex puts out an ad targeted to rare word combinations that John uses (e.g. his name and email).

When John emails a gmail user Google will read that email and display a relevant ad. If the ex targeted it right Google will display the ex's message.

So every time John Doe emails a gmail user the ex's ad migth appear to the right of the email saying "John Doe is impotent etc etc".

Google will pull the ads as fast as they see them but there is currently no pre-approval for adwords (and because of the manpower needed there might not be).

So this exploit remains very possible.