Comments on: Google-Mail privacy concerns http://www.p2pnet.net/story/1296 p2pnet.net - reader powered Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:11:09 -0300 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Reader's Write http://www.p2pnet.net/story/1296/comment-page-1#comment-1461 Reader's Write Mon, 26 Apr 2004 11:35:18 +0000 #comment-1461 Keywords that generate adverts are fine, but take it another step. Right now there's all that terrorist crap happening. What if the FBI demanded Google to submit all e-mails that used the word 'bomb', for instance? What if Kazaa demanded all e-mails with a rival link? What if the RIAA demanded all instances of songs disclosed? Since the e-mail lives 'forever', it's not like one can simply delete it. If you use the word 'dope', can the police keep tabs on you? I know that all of what I said isn't gonna happen soon, but it could definately happen. All it takes is the record industry saying....'Hey! People are stealing our product on Gmail!' Google might promise that no 'human' will read the mail, but, in the future, I bet the courts will make them break that promise. Keywords that generate adverts are fine, but take it another step. Right now there’s all that terrorist crap happening. What if the FBI demanded Google to submit all e-mails that used the word ‘bomb’, for instance? What if Kazaa demanded all e-mails with a rival link? What if the RIAA demanded all instances of songs disclosed? Since the e-mail lives ‘forever’, it’s not like one can simply delete it. If you use the word ‘dope’, can the police keep tabs on you?
I know that all of what I said isn’t gonna happen soon, but it could definately happen.
All it takes is the record industry saying….’Hey! People are stealing our product on Gmail!’
Google might promise that no ‘human’ will read the mail, but, in the future, I bet the courts will make them break that promise.

]]> By: Reader's Write http://www.p2pnet.net/story/1296/comment-page-1#comment-1439 Reader's Write Sun, 25 Apr 2004 16:35:33 +0000 #comment-1439 they may only be machines but a human made the machine and what if the software used to scan the messages for find key words to use for you targeted spam? Is there other software that compiles what keywords you used and does a human read those results? In all honesty I don't think it'll be any different than their search engine... plug in a word you get ads generated geared towards the keywords you used...They know what IP you have, what browser you used, what OS you have, might even have your full name if you used it for your admin account in the OS, what screen resolution etc ... any website that has a tracker gets this information. Is THAT an invasion of privacy? frankly i'll get an account but it wont be for really personal information - more than likely it'll be a holding space for forum registrations and other places where I cant get around the required email address. when I first heard of this I thought, "cool now i wont have to check my yahoo account and delete all the spam I get as often." this is the price of free folks ... spam and more spam. You have a choice... DON'T get an account or DO. It's all up to you ;) they may only be machines but a human made the machine and what if the software used to scan the messages for find key words to use for you targeted spam? Is there other software that compiles what keywords you used and does a human read those results?

In all honesty I don’t think it’ll be any different than their search engine… plug in a word you get ads generated geared towards the keywords you used…They know what IP you have, what browser you used, what OS you have, might even have your full name if you used it for your admin account in the OS, what screen resolution etc … any website that has a tracker gets this information. Is THAT an invasion of privacy?

frankly i’ll get an account but it wont be for really personal information – more than likely it’ll be a holding space for forum registrations and other places where I cant get around the required email address. when I first heard of this I thought, “cool now i wont have to check my yahoo account and delete all the spam I get as often.”

this is the price of free folks … spam and more spam. You have a choice… DON’T get an account or DO. It’s all up to you ;)

]]> By: Reader's Write http://www.p2pnet.net/story/1296/comment-page-1#comment-1430 Reader's Write Sun, 25 Apr 2004 08:14:07 +0000 #comment-1430 Well then, p2pnet, you'd get ads for the Ball Corporation (No. 2 on the Google search), :) I personally have no qualms about G-mail and its rather infamous e-mail ad service. If it is done by machine, then that is enough to prove to me that no human will read my messages. I think that us, our society, as a whole, has been exposed to too much paranoia and movies like the Matrix. The first one was enough to get people to go crazy over finding "the real world", add two more sequels, and I wouldn't be suprised to find people hiding in basements preparing for war with the next generation's computers. Think about it, people! Our computers are mindless, dumb machines. They are a hunk of very complicated metal, and a bit of software that makes everything work. There is virtually no chance that a supercomputing AI is going to rise out of this and take over the world. We have about 50 years of computing history to prove this... (I say 'virtually' because I don't know for sure.) So if google's search bot wants to read my e-mail and show me ads, then that's okay! They're small, and non-intrusive. Compare this with Yahoo's advertisements, they cover a full quarter of my monitor, yet I don't even pass a glance in that direction anymore. (Also because their ads are so stale that you can memorize the information off of them after 5 minutes - Yahoo Personals, anyone? "This Winter, generate your own heat"... etc etc). Most of all, google's ads are text-only. So that takes up very little webpage real-estate. Our society needs to lighten up. Save your worrying for the war going on in the real world, computers aren't going to take us over yet. Not for a long while, anyway. Well then, p2pnet, you’d get ads for the Ball Corporation (No. 2 on the Google search), :)

I personally have no qualms about G-mail and its rather infamous e-mail ad service. If it is done by machine, then that is enough to prove to me that no human will read my messages.

I think that us, our society, as a whole, has been exposed to too much paranoia and movies like the Matrix. The first one was enough to get people to go crazy over finding “the real world”, add two more sequels, and I wouldn’t be suprised to find people hiding in basements preparing for war with the next generation’s computers.

Think about it, people! Our computers are mindless, dumb machines. They are a hunk of very complicated metal, and a bit of software that makes everything work. There is virtually no chance that a supercomputing AI is going to rise out of this and take over the world. We have about 50 years of computing history to prove this… (I say ‘virtually’ because I don’t know for sure.)

So if google’s search bot wants to read my e-mail and show me ads, then that’s okay! They’re small, and non-intrusive. Compare this with Yahoo’s advertisements, they cover a full quarter of my monitor, yet I don’t even pass a glance in that direction anymore. (Also because their ads are so stale that you can memorize the information off of them after 5 minutes – Yahoo Personals, anyone? “This Winter, generate your own heat”… etc etc). Most of all, google’s ads are text-only. So that takes up very little webpage real-estate.

Our society needs to lighten up. Save your worrying for the war going on in the real world, computers aren’t going to take us over yet. Not for a long while, anyway.

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