GMail privacy fears miss the point
Tim O'Reilly does a fantastic job analyzing GMail--debunking the privacy concerns and pointing out what's really going on here in "The Fuss About Gmail and Privacy: Nine Reasons Why It's Bogus" Worth a read. Excerpt:
There has been a rash of recent editorials about privacy concerns with Google's gmail service. A number of organizations have asked Google to voluntarily suspend the service. One California legislator has gone so far as to say she plans to introduce a bill to ban it. This is nuts! A number of things to consider:
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Chris Alden
Christopher J. Alden is Chairman & CEO of Six Apart, Ltd., the world's largest blogging company. Six Apart acquired Rojo Networks, Inc., creator of an innovative RSS feed reading service, where Mr. Alden was co-founder and CEO. Before Rojo, he was CEO of Red Herring Communications, Inc., publisher of Red Herring magazine -- described by the Wall Street Journal as the "bible of Silicon Valley" - which he helped launch out of his house in 1993. Prior to that he founded Computer Guides, a consultancy, and taught computer studies at Crystal Springs Uplands school. Mr. Alden also has a background in real estate development and hotel management, having worked for Western Land Corporation and Woodside Hotels & Resorts.
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I think the GMail ads are more along the lines of the Catalina Coupons that we already give out at grocery stores (I work at a Harris Teeter) that are tailored to your shopping habits.
I realize that grocery shopping and email are a little different (really, a lot), but the concept is still the same.
Also, Google already drops me a cookie and keeps track of my searches and presents ads based on what I search for or the page I'm looking at, so I really don't see the problem with that. If Yahoo, for example, was an AdWords customer, and decided to out the AdWords ads on their webmail mail view page, it wouldn't be that big if a deal.
Anyway, I'm not too worried about the provacy, and I think I'm definitley going to sign up for a GMail account as soon as they are available.