[SEL] Re: Google Gmail - Free, But at a price...

[Listerdiesel]

On Apr 3, 2005 7:18 PM, Arnie Fero <fero_ah at city-net.com> wrote:
> AND as a bonus, Google reads every single one of your emails so that ALL
> of the adverts you see are targeted to YOUR needs and interests.  And
> it keeps your email forever so that it can learn more about you as
> time passes.  Isn't that special?  And they assure you that humans never
> read your email (no matter how interesting it is) and they never sell any
> info about you to advertisers (no matter HOW specific the profile is that
> they develop from all of your email).  Its just so wonderful, it makes me
> all warm and tingly...  Well, they don't do all of those nasty
> privacy-invading things except under "some" circumstances.  But they
> carefully obscure just exactly what they are.  Trust them.  They just want
> to help...  8-))
> 
> http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/about.html#ads
> http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/privacy.html
> http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/about_privacy.html
> 
> See ya,  Arnie
> 
> PS - The "about privacy" bit is a hoot.
>    "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
>    From Hamlet (III, ii, 239)
> 
> Arnie Fero

Well, that's one way of looking at it...:-))

Yes, you can keep ALL your old emails and never throw them away, but I
only keep relevant stuff that is engine-list related, and most of that
which I have no need for is deleted, much to the annoyance of Gmail
which chideth me greatly for not using the 1gb of free storage space
that they have placed at my disposal.

Yes, there are targetted TEXT ads on the right-hand side of the
screen, but I have not noticed them to be honest, other than to look
at them occasionally to see how accurate the adverts are compared with
what the email is about.

Privacy went out the window with email as far as I am concerned, so I
don't use email for anything remotely sensitive, like Dave really
being a Liberal Democrat after all...  and it's not a big issue for me
personally, it may be for others.

When you consider how long other bits of info about you are sold by
your bank, building society, local council and so on, it just isn't a
factor any more in what I choose to use.

I think there is a bit of paranoia over privacy matters, but I can
live with that if you can...

Tulare ?????????????

Peter
-- 
Peter A Forbes
Email: listerdiesel at gmail.com
Web: www.oldengine.org/members/diesel