Maybe Gmail is not a threat to privacy; but if it is, I want to know that before I'm one of a handful of cranky holdouts, and all the email I get comes from, and all the email I send goes to, GMail. Because at that point, I am part of the system, whether I like it or not.
Good point. It's not just having GMail et al as your email inbox. Even if you're not using GMail, every time you converse with someone who is, you're leaving another little trace in their system. You think they won't be able to trawl their users for any mail originating from you@yourdomain.com?
Why haven't people made this fuss about regular ISPs? They're far less likely to be in the spotlight than GMail, but they can track both your email and surfing habits quite easily, no?
All this reminds me of Neal Stephenson's short story, "Spew", for anyone who has read it.
Good point. It's not just having GMail et al as your email inbox. Even if you're not using GMail, every time you converse with someone who is, you're leaving another little trace in their system. You think they won't be able to trawl their users for any mail originating from you@yourdomain.com?
Why haven't people made this fuss about regular ISPs? They're far less likely to be in the spotlight than GMail, but they can track both your email and surfing habits quite easily, no?
All this reminds me of Neal Stephenson's short story, "Spew", for anyone who has read it.