Gmail's evil!!!!

Okay by now you have most likely seen on other forums people giving away accsess codes for this thing called Gmail. well don't let the name fool you....the full name is "Google mail" that thing a while back on the news openly said that it was going to to put up ads that mach wat you're talking about. People don't head that warning. They're joing up with them anyway. well there is a darker side....not just the ads. After you delete stuff from the email....you are being tracked....people accualy read what you delete!

Now If you think I'm crazy.....here's a site that has dirt on this new, 1984 type Fad.... gmail-is-too-creepy.com... I hope this wasn't posted before...if it was I'm sorry....But I mean Don't you just think that it's creepy? come on not just a little?

I don't like it...I mean I don't like the fact of those ads and the people reading what you delete that is suposed to be totaly gone! Down with Gmail!

Yeah i had gmail for a couple months now and i know they can read my email

.people accualy read what you delete!

other people can't just do a search for my emails, i couldnt get my friends emails if i tried so thats false.
i don't really care though i don't use it for personal things. You can send large files though to other gmail members which is cool.
There is no delete button though
you have to move the emails into the trash folder to delete them.

Wow Gmail really is bad - I'm so happy that there are so many other totally private and secure email services out there like yahoo, hotmail, and aol. I know my ISP doesn't keep any records of emails or my IP once I log out or delete them. It's a good thing you told me about this before I started sending out my bank account numbers and personal information through gmail - I'll use my hotmail account from now on. Google itself doesn't leave cookies or track what I search for, why would their gmail be so evil? Sheesh. I can't believe google trying to make a profit from the ads on their free email service!! We should all be entitled to totally free email from for profit companies! I wonder how much they pay all those people to read my deleted mail. No wonder they need all those ads!

/sarcasm

Seriously though, I'm not trying to be rude, but if you think gmail is the only 'evil' on the Internet, you are living in fantasyland. Sounds very 1984, but I think we were there long before gmail. It does have great storage, though.

You have to admit, they were smart in making it a 'test' site and requiring invites like it was some sort of secret club. Gmail became suddenly 'hot' and people were doing all sorts of crazy things for an invite. Nothing makes people want something more than not being able to have it.

[edit on 1-9-2004 by RedBalloon]

The big complaint about Gmail is not that they can track your deleted e-mail messages, but that they will placing advertising in messages you receive. At first this is to take the form of the ad bars that you see above or to the side of your searches on google, but there are concerns that google will start making key terms in received messages into links to products. That's the big problem most people have with Gmail.

Yes, Google can read your messages, even the ones in the trash. They will likely not have actual people doing this, but rather programs that will try and determine what your interests are, so that the advertising displayed to you will be more effective. Since Google gets paid by its advertisers per click-through, this is a good thing for Google's bottom line. Whether it's something that I like...not really, but compared to some of the crap that's going on online these days it's a relatively minor annoyance.

As was mentioned before, the e-mail you receive through your ISP is just as vulnerable to being read. Any e-mail that you haven't downloaded (or, if you have IMAP e-mail, all of your messages) before the daily backups of the ISP's server are archived and kept for years.

If this is a problem for you, register your own domain, get a connection directly to the Internet's backbone, and make sure that you lock everything down. This will take a good deal of money and knowledge, so be prepared.

Originally posted by RedBalloon
Wow Gmail really is bad - I'm so happy that there are so many other totally private and secure email services out there like yahoo, hotmail, and aol. I know my ISP doesn't keep any records of emails or my IP once I log out or delete them. It's a good thing you told me about this before I started sending out my bank account numbers and personal information through gmail - I'll use my hotmail account from now on. Google itself doesn't leave cookies or track what I search for, why would their gmail be so evil? Sheesh. I can't believe google trying to make a profit from the ads on their free email service!! We should all be entitled to totally free email from for profit companies! I wonder how much they pay all those people to read my deleted mail. No wonder they need all those ads!

/sarcasm

[edit on 1-9-2004 by RedBalloon]

Lol! I thought you were talking seriously until I saw the /sarcasm thing
99.9% of ISPs log your IP addresses, your emails, your online activites - so you are right - Gmail is no way the only 'evil' service out there.

This is why I have my own domain with my own e-mail.
Plus... I get more spam with GMail... actually.
Thats where all my spam is.

My Private one and Hotmail get ZERO Spam.

Just as spooky as Microsoft keeping hidden copies of all your internet related files (even after you 'delete' them), copies that can't be seen at all when inside Windows.

www.linuxfactory.ie...

The worst thing I found with Gmail is that it won't work with Opera, or firefox, and you have to use IE with the ActiveX enabled, which is a security hole.

Pretty crap that there is no way to use it with better browsers and tying it to only one make.

I use FireFox 0.9.2 and my GMAIL works perfectly fine.Maybe you have a setting not right.Have you tried the help forums?Quite a few people had problems and most problems were cookie issues/settings.
Maybe try here
I have been using FF since 0.6 and I use IE for NOTHING.
Hope you find whats wrong.

As for the topic.I dont think gmail is any more a threat than windows/IE
If you are sketchy about using it,dont.
I use it for things like file exchanging that my ISP wont let me due to size as well as forum sign ups.Some software I download wants an email address so I use it as well for that.

I dont think it's that big a deal really.