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Originally posted by Panky
Anyone reading or tampering with my postal mail is a federal offence. Law enforcement agents need to obtain a court order for wire tapping and some forms of surveilance. Scanning user emails should follow under the same laws and regulations.
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Unfortunately it can't work that way in practice. Technically there is no difference between scanning email to detect spam or viruses or scanning it to serve advertising. Many companies already scan for spam and viruses, this is nothing new. Email is in no way private. Email is just slightly more private than exchanging messages by posting them on billboards around town.
Email is sent in plain text across the net. That means that the admins of the senders network, the recipients network, and all of the networks in between have ability to read the mail. Plus anyone with a packet sniffer on the senders network, recievers network, or anywhere inbetween can also read the message. If you want privacy encrypt your email.
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Originally posted by Panky
There is other methods to obatin information to serve targeted advertising. They don't need to scan user emails to do this.
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Companies don't need to put up billboards to obscure the landscape, there are other ways to advertise. Companies don't need advertisements on tv and radio that interrupt that shows you like, there are other ways to advertise. Companies don't need to send junk snail mail, there are other ways to advertise.
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Originally posted by Panky
It's a huge marketing potential for advertisers, plus Google stands to profit immensely.
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Oh no! Not immense profits!!! Isn't profit the whole point of business?
Quote:
Originally posted by Panky
There's also a bigger picture. If scanning user emails becomes widely accepted by gmail users and the general public, then every company after that will begin to follow suit. There's way too much potential for abuse.
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If people don't want their email scanned they don't have to use the service. There are plenty of alternatives.
Personally I wouldn't use Gmail for anything confidential, but then again I wouldn't use any of the free email services, or even my isp's email for anything confidential either. If its important that nobody reads it, I encrypt it. As far as free email services go, some targetted ads in exchange for a Gig of space (and Google's clean utilitarian interface) seem like a good deal.