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| quote: | Originally posted by Durafei
Please support this statement with a proof, specifically "profiling purposes". |
Well let's see, here's from Google's very own gmail web page:
Now how would you say this is possible if they aren't profiling you?
Here's another little tidbit from their privacy policy - I wonder if any of you bothered to read it:
| quote: | Email contents and usage. The contents of your Gmail account also are stored and maintained on Google servers in order to provide the service. Google's computers process the information in your email for various purposes, including formatting and displaying the information to you, delivering targeted related information (such as advertisements and related links), preventing unsolicited bulk email (spam), backing up your email, and other purposes relating to offering you Gmail. Because we keep back-up copies of data for the purposes of recovery from errors or system failure, residual copies of email may remain on our systems for some time, even after you have deleted messages from your mailbox or after the termination of your account. Google employees do not access the content of any mailboxes unless you specifically request them to do so (for example, if you are having technical difficulties accessing your account) or if required by law, to maintain our system, or to protect Google or the public.
We also may collect information about the use of your account, such as how much storage you are using, how often you log in and other information related to your registration and use of Gmail. Information displayed or clicked on in your Gmail account (including UI elements, ads, links, and other information) is also recorded. We use this information internally to deliver the best possible service to you, such as improving the Gmail user interface, preventing fraud within our advertising system, and better targeting related information. |
So let's see here:
- They scan your messages
- They keep track of what you click on
- They keep information even after you have deleted it
- They make it explicitly clear that your e-mail is scanned for advertising purposes.
You can take everything they say at face value if you want, but to do that you'd have to be either very naive or just extremely inexperienced with legal boilerplate. There are always loopholes in any privacy policy that Google can exploit if they deem it profitable. They certainly managed to pull off this kind of corporate whoring with their search engine without anyone even noticing for several months.
Come on, do you honestly think that Google staff are offering this out of the goodness of their hearts? They're a profit-driven company like any other!
I'm not expecting to convince anyone here not to use gmail, but I sure as hell am never going to go near it. I get 50 free mailboxes or forwarding addresses with my webhosting package that I can also access through their web portal, and those suit me just fine. Anybody can get high-quality, ad-free e-mail for just a couple of bucks per year - it's really amazing what people will do to save such a petty sum of money while simultaneously wasting ten times as much on cheap thrills, overpriced drinks and gimmicky gadgets.
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