Anybody want a Gmail account?

[Dr Keyboard]

I have six Gmail accounts to give away - e-mail me at gmail@drkeyboard.com and it's first-come, first served.
http://www.gmail.com for details.

[Dave Robinson]

I would strongly advise anyone interested to read the privacy issues on the Gmail website and make their own minds up about it.

http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/more.html

Particularly note THIS part

"There are also many scenarios in which a recipient will benefit from seeing ads and information related to an email message, without the sender's explicit consent. For example, if you receive an email offer from one local gym, there's value in seeing offers from other gyms nearby. The ability to see comparative advertising from different competitors is an important consumer right, even if the sender may not desire it."

If someone signs up for Gmail and is prepared to accept these conditions then fair enough - but my own opinion is that I do NOT want emails sent to me FROM a gmail user that is littered with adverts and has been through these processes.

PS to Doc - if you'd rather this discussion wasn't held in the Announcements forum, please move my comments to somewhere more appropriate

[Dr Keyboard]

You don't want to receive e-mails FROM Gmail accounts? How on earth could that possibly affect you?

[Jon]

Ads and links to related pages only appear alongside the message that they are targeted to, and are only shown when the Gmail user, whether sender or recipient, is viewing that particular message. No email content or other personally identifiable information is ever shared with advertisers. In fact, advertisers do not even know how often their ads are shown in Gmail, as this data is aggregated across thousands of sites in the Google Network.

The paragraph above, right out of their Privacy policy, may be what Dave's concerned about. It would seem to leave room for the opportunity for the mail from dr_k@gmail.com to anyone_else@hotmail.com to include embedded Google ads for, say, "Bud's Computer Support, A Google Sponsor" which anyone_else @hotmail.com would receive whenever dr_k@gmail.com sent out a gmail about his computer support service.

[Dr Keyboard]

So, because there MAY be an ad in the e-mail relating directly to the content you'd, say, blacklist Gmail? Do you also blacklist Yahoo! mail with ads in it?
Sorry, I find this EXTREMELY hard to understand.

[Michael]

Ads and links to related pages only appear alongside the message that they are targeted to, and are only shown when the Gmail user, whether sender or recipient, is viewing that particular message.[...]

Doesn't this imply that only Gmail users see the ads? Or are they actually embedded in the email so non-Gmail recipients also see them?

[Jon]

Do you also blacklist Yahoo! mail with ads in it?
Sorry, I find this EXTREMELY hard to understand.

Does Yahoo! Mail try to match the ads with the contents of the e-mail? Google's said explicitly that they will.

[Dr Keyboard]

Does Yahoo! Mail try to match the ads with the contents of the e-mail? Google's said explicitly that they will.

I guess so. Which is bad how?

[Jon]

Just don't say anything in a gmail, or to a gmail account holder, that you don't want the entire world knowing. You clearly can have no expectation of any semblance of confidentiality. And one can only expect that sooner, rather than later, someone's going to crack whatever perimeter security Google's set up around their mail servers.

[Dave Robinson]

My main purpose here was to point out to potential users that there are some concerns to some people - and to read the information provided (maybe read the anti-gmail lobby too) - then make up their OWN mind.

Personally it bothers me - there are too many fuzzy areas but as long as people are informed and make up their own mind, that is OK.

I won't be using it though and if things develop as I suspect they might I will also be blocking mail FROM gmail.

[Dr Keyboard]

Blimey. I'm just not that paranoid.

[Jon]

"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."

[Dave Robinson]

For some reason it all seems to remind me a little of the TopText piece of adware that can get plugged into your browser - read about it HERE and HERE

I doubt anyone would be particularly charitable towards TopText but the links inserted into Gmails would seem a similar invasion

[Dr Keyboard]

The links actually aren't in the e-mails, they're in a pane at the side when you read them. There are no ads sent out with mails as far as I can tell.
But I don't think that's relevant to what you're worried about, you don't sound like you'd trust Google with anything so obviously Gmail isn't for you.

[Dave Robinson]

The links actually aren't in the e-mails, they're in a pane at the side when you read them. There are no ads sent out with mails as far as I can tell.

If I am a non-gmail user but a recipient of said mails, how can they be in a side panel? They may be a side panel for gmail users reading through webmail - but what if I read with a non-gmail mail reader?

But I don't think that's relevant to what you're worried about, you don't sound like you'd trust Google with anything so obviously Gmail isn't for you.

Certainly relevant. And yes I trust Google implicitly to deliver me good search engine results for plain text, images and USENET groups searching. Oh and news items too. That's what they are good at