parahuman: why i don't do Gmail (for now)

i don't do Gmail. i don't block anything but spam from coming into my inbox, so i'll receive email sent from Gmail accounts, though i'm not thrilled about it and i won't write back if i can reach you another way.

this journal entry is by no means an exhaustive resource on Gmail and online privacy issues. it is, i hope, the best reason i can give you for not replying to messages sent from Gmail.

from what i and anybody else can tell, Google is a tremendously popular company with tremendously popular products. in fact, while Gmail was still under development, i spent a few hours participating in a contest at discussion forum solving chess problems just to win an invitation to use the service. okay, how geeky is that? well, it was fun, but now it doesn't seems that it worth the trouble. i eventually stopped using that account and deleted it.

the truth is that i'm not comfortable with Google having the ability to connect my web searches to my email address. while i'm not as worried as others are about Google's practice of automatically scanning your email, but i am concerned about the enormous privacy implications involving some of their other products, like Google Desktop, the Web Page Accelerator and Safe Browsing extension for Firefox. i also have the creeping suspicion that every email that's been received and sent from Gmail is (or will be) part of a growing social network database (where person A knows person B, like the "friends of" and "friends of a friend of" type of social networking found at Orkut and Dodgeball, two of Google services). i don't want anyone knowing that much about me.

while i'm not asking you to ditch Gmail ~ especially if it's your only email provider ~ i'm asking you not to send me anything from a Gmail account. if you do, don't worry. i'll read it. i probably just won't reply to it. besides, there are plenty of ways to reach me other than email.

if you think i'm being paranoid, consider this: somewhere near thirty privacy and civil liberties organizations have asked Google to put Gmail on hold until its serious privacy issues are resolved. more and more people are questioning Google's motives. even Dan Gillmor, an outspoken advocate of civil and privacy "cyber-rights," has said he wouldn't even consider using Gmail.

i hope Google updates and discloses their data retention and correlation policies sometime soon. what are they actually intending to do with all that data? there are lots of theories, but not much is publicly known. in the meantime, all they'll say are ominous things like "We are moving to a Google that knows more about you," and "If it's useful, we'll hold onto it." i believe these statements could indeed include every email that's ever been received or sent from Gmail. i mean, Google actually discourages users of Gmail from deleting messages in their account... for years there wasn't a delete button!

so, what is there to do? the Electronic Frontier Foundation recommends using a second web browser exclusively for using Gmail (yikes!), and EPIC, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, has some fantastic information on protecting your privacy if you still decide to use both Google and Gmail.

5 Comments | leave a comment | email this entry

Anonymous wrote...: Interestingly enough you have a blogger account - blogger is owned by google. You also link to this blogger site from various other blogs - something which google can track and thus learn more about your browsing habits.

Do you visit any sites displaying googles AdWords/AdSense ads? Google can obviously track every visit to a site using their ads that you make via cookies.

Do you accept mail from hotmail or yahoo? Or any other webmail run by a search engine? If so whats the difference?

Is this about the silly "we cannot guarantee that your emaisl will be deleted" statement that google made? They were honest. You think hotmail can guarantee a mail will be deleted? Can you prove that they do?

You can stay paranoid or get over yourself. Everything you do online is trackable by your ISP, maybe you should stay off the internet?; 14 April, 2005 05:23
Anonymous wrote...: wow, you are such a dumbass...; 14 April, 2005 18:47
Anonymous wrote...: I must agree with the previous posts, and also point out that the word "privacy" is not found in any part of the constitution. It is an implied right at best.; 14 April, 2005 18:47
christefano wrote...: thanks for responding, everyone, i appreciate it. i wonder, though, if anyone who already left a comment actually read any of the articles and opinions that i linked to in my entry.

> Do you visit any sites displaying googles
> AdWords/AdSense ads?

i'm not too concerned about using Blogger, since everything that Blogger could possibly have on me is already publicly known. and i do use some of Google's other services but i block or regularly delete their cookies.

> Is this about the silly "we cannot guarantee
> that your emaisl [sic] will be deleted"
> statement that google made?

no it isn't, and i didn't go into that in my original entry. i was under the impression that everything was deleted upon request, but i may be wrong. i believe that the reason it takes so long to delete Gmail accounts is because they have so many redundant servers.

> ... the word "privacy" is not found in any part
> of the constitution.

while i assume you mean the United Stated Constitution, i refuse to believe that this is an issue limited to the privacy of United States citizens. Gmail's privacy policy may be in conflict with Directive 95/46/EC, also called the European Union Privacy Directive. it says that users’ consent must be informed, specific, and unambiguous.

> you are such a dumbass...

thanks!

~ Christefano; 14 April, 2005 20:03
Anonymous wrote...: BURNED! lol; 19 November, 2005 20:42