at least google is the one that stood up to the government when they request random sample search data.....we know how random search data is by AOL's goof
i agree, google can collect all they want as long as its kept private, and seeing from what they did to fight for our rights in the past, they definitely have my trust.
I guess the fact that Google was serving ads to a Gmail user based on the SENDER'S surfing habits, and not based on the content of the email, is keeping things private in your book?
Thanks for the heads up. I read what your wrote and posted a reply. Maybe I'll have to move my email elsewhere.
I have an account with them, and somehow I never really fancied using it for anything, now to hear this, think I'll delete it..Thanks for the heads up!
its not like an employee is physicaly looking at your habits and manually putting in ads based on your surfing scheme. its all automated, so who honestly cares? and when i was refering to keeping our data private i was referring to when the government demanded they give it to them, and they did not. who give a flying whoop that ads are being served based on habits? -Tim
Okay, perhaps an imaginary scenario would help: Automated or not, the secretary's privacy is violated.
Lets say you are a teen girl and this is where you have been researching allot lately. Or you’re a young man who is a minister who has been looking for things like this regularly. Don't email Mom if she has a Gmail account. Because remember the email is from you and they will see the ads which is a reflection of your email. D
This would be a problem Rob. The family member does not want his email shown as an example to the world. Just trust that I looked for hidden text, java, and imbedded links and none were found. Get people to experiment. Make sure the email contains on link and no other text. Make sure it is off topic. Then look at the G ads. Remember this was a Yahoo email sent to a Gmail Email account. D
Well google are bigtime data collectors when they took out the desktop search it almost showed their long term plab if you have ever used google desktop be sure every files you have is being inxed in a google server located somewhere in the servers in some country which does not have any sort of digital laws..but hey they provide stuff for free and fast who cares? or do we?
we all have our own views and opinions,..but i dont see anything wrong with it. maybe the question is, is gmail right for the office place? just use a @company.com not gmail.
I have all my mail sent to gmail then have gmail spoof the return address....I've also been getting strange ads from them since I signed up a few months ago & never really thought much about it till now. I've no plans on changing, I love google and all their free stuff! Though, as timallard said "is gmail right for the office?" may be the true question for this. I wonder how many people are getting porn ads from my yahoo accounts as the only thing I generally use them for is well, pr0n and then to sign up to random forums where I think they might be selling my address. Now and again I have to email the forums for whatever reason. *shrug* But then, maybe it's not a question of Google at all...I mean, yahoo is the one giving/selling your email information...you can't blame google for asking And as for getting rid of your gmail accounts, that's rather pointless, it's Yahoo, and the gods only know who else. And you can't really tell who is getting your mail either. Email me at any of my email addresses (cept yahoo, they won't forward) and I'm reading it at Gmail...so I have your spam! Q
You have a point... somebody needs to test forwarding to Gmail as well... The point was that the secretary is home... on her own PC... probably NOT set up for the office email accounts. One quick link mailed... and BAM! Google is serving ads to her boss, based on her browsing on her own computer, on her own time. What do you think, Tim, does she just say "No, you will have to wait until I am at the office tomorrow?" What if he's in Japan, mid-day and at a meeting in which he needs the info ASAP?
then you probably wouldn't mind if your browsing data was included in that big data release from AOL right? You're certainly right about not using Gmail for work but that's not the point. The point is, Google should not be showing any of your data to anyone but you. Imagine reading a story about some neo-nazis getting arrested and then sending an email to a jewish friend... or maybe reading a story about ways to tell if your spouse is cheating only to send your wife an email that has something similar in the ads? If you truly don't care about your privacy, then publish your history online for all to see... as for myself, I'm no longer sending email to or from Gmail accounts.