Comments on: Why Gmail gives me the creeps

CNET News.com's Charles Cooper says the big thinkers at Google should go back to the drawing board and correct a big mistake before it's too late.

A computer sifting through words is not creepy.

G-mail and its targeted advertising are a great idea. I know that the reason I hate most advertising on the interenet is because it's not anything close to something that would ever interest me. Gmail will provide me with offers that I might actually take up (not to mention a heck of a lot of storage space and no pop-ups) People who say Gmail is invasive to privacy completely do not understand the way Gmail works, or for that matter, the way Google AdSense works. Google doesn't collect or see any information in your e-mails. At all. Period. A computer searches for keywords and displays ads BASED ON these keywords. Google specifically says that, "No humans read your email to target the ads, and no email content or other personally identifiable information is ever provided to advertisers." The most ironic part of all this is that people worry about a simple computer algorithm sifting through an e-mail, while e-mails themselves from EVERY PROVIDER are completely insecure and, technically, readable by ANYONE who wants to get their hands on them. So, unless you're a security buff who encrypts every e-mail they send, don't complain about a computer reading your e-mail.

Microsoft gives me the creeps

"Microsoft can say its Internet browsers, spreadsheets, and word
processors" are "better than the rest?" Give us a break.
Microsoft's products are more successful than the rest because
of the company's strategy, and they succeed in the market
despite the fact that the products are inherently inferior.
Longhorn will be no exception.

The general thought behind it?

If you try to compare Microsoft and Google, you are already running into problems. Yes I believe that Google has something going for themselves in this and advertising is a definite possibility. My thoughts is that the more users that Google shows the more and more of the online market they can take away from everyone else. If you think of it as a privacy issue? With 1 gig of space would the average user need that? And would they even check all that junk mail that they would receive. The answer is no. The majority of the people on-line usually use the Microsoft and Yahoo adresses as secondary for their low security messages. Do I thin that this is a problem...No, I think this Gmail could be revolutionary and add great sophistication to the internet as we know it now.

Gmail

I love your search engine and I think that you offering email is even better.You have an awesome site.I have never had a problem with it.
Thanks for making it even better.
Sincerely,
Vickie

why creepy ?

Yes, the technology seems scary at first.. but then, no one forces you to use this service, and as long as you are aware of how much privacy you get with it, I don't see anything wrong with that.

In fact I can see the good in it, I am about to go on holidays with some friends and looking for a cottage, if such a system would come with suggestions after a couple of emails, all the better !

There are far worse cases of real privacy violation in every day life. Anyone had to give a blood sample to his employer or write a letter by hand so they could submit it to 'graphology' ? That is definitely creepy..

Im not searching - I'm communicating a PRIVATE message - Not for analysis!!

You can be sure that I won't be using Gmail. My communications are not analysis foods for Google's advertising fodder. I'm sure that the TOS will state that by using Gmail, you accept these terms - but why in the world would you? My private thoughts and opinions shared in emails will not be analyzed for "marketing opportunities" and those that allow their emails to be scanned for purchased key phrases deserve all the pop-ups they get.

Karen

Paranoia strikes

Hi.

So the idea of a computer scanning your email is creepy? Obviously you've not heard of a recent phenomenon called 'spam'.

Believe it or not, some online email companies actually *gasp* scan your email to decide whether or not it's junkmail! The nerve!

Some even go as far as opening your mail attachments to see if they contain a virus - but what if I *wanted* the virus to destroy my PC? How dare they scan my mail and warn me when I'm about to offer my PC to unkown hackers?

If you want creepy, take a look at the C-Net signup form. Why would you possibly want all that personal information and my private email address just so I can post an opinion?

Jim Keir

Actually....

The difference is between volunteering information about yourself...like at Cnet registration versus an automated scanning to develop personal profiles.

GMail and google search

you mentioned that they scan your email and serve adverdising.
Well all free providers serve adverdising and they occasionaly
crawl your email anyway. I rather get ad's served that I meight
have interest in, than seeing the "YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A LIVE
PARTER" one, because I don't.
Oscar