Gmail, AOL and Privacy
I stumbled across a website about Gmail and privacy this morning.
Called “Gmail is too creepy”, it considers Gmail’s privacy policy and the concerns of a number of privacy organizations like the Consumer Federation of America and the Australian Privacy Foundation about the way Google handles data.
As the site points out, “Google’s policies are essentially no different than the policies of Microsoft, Yahoo, Alexa and Amazon.” They are just a little more unclear. And because of Gmail’s popularity, a little more frightening.
Three things I didn’t know:
- Google never deletes anything. Emails that you delete from your Gmail account are retained by Google.
- “After 180 days in the U.S., email messages lose their status as a protected communication under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and become just another database record.”
- Google is a force for world peace.
AOL also released a revised privacy policy today. The organization will no longer sell or rent lists of users’ home addresses, but will track user activity on AOL and in web searches in order to deliver targeted advertising content.
You can read about this and the response of the EFF and others in a C|Net news story. (Check out C|Net’s very cool news story tag cloud feature.)
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- AOL, Gmail, Hotmail and an email’s journey
- Nine reasons not to worry about Gmail
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October 8th, 2005 at 11:58 am
WHOAH! Points one and two are EXTREMELY worrying for people who use gmail as an archive/repository for all their other email accounts.
October 8th, 2005 at 8:40 pm
I agree. It’s spooky.
I’ve been thinking about this on and off today while doing the weekend chores.
The whole idea that Gmail is a “free” service is a little bit deceptive. In fact, it is a transaction in which assets other than money are exchanged. Gmail provides you with 2 GB of storage for your email, and in return you give (not lend, but give) them your data for their own profit-making purposes.
That’s not to say that it is a bad deal by necessity; just that it is not a “free” deal. People should consider that before they sign up.
October 14th, 2005 at 10:55 am
[...] I’ve ummed and ahhed about blogging this. There are some things about Gmail, privacy and data ownership I know about now, that I didn’t know a month ago. But it’s your data. You decide. [...]
October 14th, 2005 at 6:13 pm
Google, GMail et la confidentialit?ɬ© des donn?ɬ©es
Tomb?ɬ© sur deux sites “Gmail, AOL, and Privacy” et “GMail is too creepy”, voici de s?ɬ©rieuses questions ?ɬ† se poser concernant la confidentialit?ɬ© des correspondances par ce biais…
…
October 19th, 2005 at 7:28 am
[...] A little while ago, I posted an entry about Gmail, privacy and data ownership that contained some alarming facts. [...]
January 2nd, 2006 at 12:24 am
[...] Concerns about Gmail and privacy are nothing new. Gmail’s policy of never deleting anything raises interesting questions about privacy and data-ownership. Its revised privacy policy, released in October last year, was not reassuring. [...]
January 22nd, 2006 at 12:56 am
[...] In a move that will surprise many doom-sayers (like me) who fret about Google, Gmail and privacy, the search engine company has refused a request from the US Department of Justice for information about the search habits of Google users. [...]