Guest guest Posted March 17, 2005 Report Share Posted March 17, 2005 I forwarded a message to my gmail account with the word sausage in the subject. Next thing I know there were adds and links for sausage related things in the ad space. So, gmail is reading the subjects of all email? It felt invasive. The set up of threads is nice though. ---Carol Masterjohn <chrismasterjohn@...> wrote: I just opened up a Gmail account (from Google) that I use for my lists now, and I have nothing but praise for it. People who use groups or other email lists may want to consider using Gmail for the list accounts. All of your past mail gets saved on your personal space on Google's server, and you can *search* your past mail for keywords. The emails are automatically organized by topic, so that when you click on one email, all the emails in that thread that are new are posted in order, and all of the old ones can be opened up by clicking on a hypertext link to " show hidden messages, " and then are shown in order with a list of hypertext links labelled by the author of the message for easy navigation. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 17, 2005 Report Share Posted March 17, 2005 On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 16:20:55 -0800 (PST) Carol Saunders <carolnpepa@...> wrote: > I forwarded a message to my gmail account with the word sausage in >the subject. Next thing I know there were adds and links for sausage >related things in the ad space. So, gmail is reading the subjects of >all email? It felt invasive. The set up of threads is nice though. Yes it does and this has caused a great outcry in many circles. My suggestion would be to use a good email program that does list managing. I use Becky which is probably the best email client I have used thus far, and I have tried a ton. Becky has the thread feature and many other useful and very helpful features. http://www.rimarts.co.jp/becky.htm What I would do is get a account and then set it up so that your messages are forwarded to your email inbox on your hard drive (in Becky or whatever client you are using). You can pay a yearly fee to to have your mail forwarded or you can install a free utility that will do it for you. After that it is just a matter of setting up your lists according to your preferences in Becky or whathaveyou. Works great and it keeps everything nicely segregated from my personal email account. " I feel sorry for all those health food people. Someday, they will be lying in a hospital bed, dying of nothing. " Redd Foxx ================================================= " This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take... He will take... He will take... He will take... ... he will take... He will take... " (I 8:11-17) ================================================= Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 17, 2005 Report Share Posted March 17, 2005 >I forwarded a message to my gmail account with the word sausage in the subject. Next thing I know there were adds and links for sausage related things in the ad space. So, gmail is reading the subjects of all email? It felt invasive. The set up of threads is nice though. > > ---Carol > Carol, Definitely gmail has privacy issues. If you want a very nice search ability without the Big Brother aspects of gmail, you might want to try Mozilla Thunderbird. Convenience of threads comes at a privacy price with gmail. http://www.google-watch.org/gmail.html Deanna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 17, 2005 Report Share Posted March 17, 2005 > I forwarded a message to my gmail account with the word sausage in the > subject. Next thing I know there were adds and links for sausage related > things in the ad space. So, gmail is reading the subjects of all email? > It felt invasive. The set up of threads is nice though. > > ---Carol Their ad and privacy faq http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/about.html#faq Ads same as google reading search. Privacy better than groups that you need to opt out of. Wanita -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 266.7.3 - Release Date: 3/15/2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 17, 2005 Report Share Posted March 17, 2005 Quoting Carol Saunders <carolnpepa@...>: > I forwarded a message to my gmail account with the word sausage in the > subject. Next thing I know there were adds and links for sausage related > things in the ad space. So, gmail is reading the subjects of all email? > It felt invasive. The set up of threads is nice though. In some sense, all e-mail providers " read " not only subject lines, but also the full text of the e-mail. I'm not sure how you envision e-mail working, but it's not at all like the postal model where the content is sealed in an envelope until it reaches the hands of the recipient. E-mail must be read, copied, and forwarded (by nonsentient machines) a number of times before it finally reaches you. The only difference is that Google takes an intermediate step: nonsentient machines, rather than reading the mail as a meaningless stream of characters, look for individual words and use those to retrieve (dubiously) relevant ads from their ad database. Yes, as Google Watch (speaking of dubious...) says, it's *possible* that they could be storing information about keywords in your mail keyed to your e-mail address. But so could any other e-mail provider. The fact that Google advertises their ability to see your e-mail doesn't mean that their access to it is greater than that of any other provider, nor does it constitute evidence that they're abusing it. The point about mail staying on their servers for long periods of time is valid, as is the point that the government could force them to release this mail (they can also subpoena your computer, but I'll grant that they can't cast a very wide net with that). But these don't concern me at all, because there's nothing in my GMail account that I'm afraid to have made public. This is because I've known for years that... E-MAIL IS NOT SECURE. Not GMail, not , not AOL, and not your friendly neighborhood ISP. Anything you send can (and almost certainly won't) be intercepted and read by any of a number of people along the way. If you have a message that would arouse the interest of the state, don't send it by e-mail. If you must, use encryption, and make sure you trust the recipient both to keep the contents secret and to delete it with all due haste. That said, no one at Google is reading your mail, and for the vast majority of us, having it subpoenaed is not likely, so I use my GMail account (for non-criminal communications) with no worries whatsoever. If anyone can think of a plausible scenario in which this could lead to dire consequences, I'd be interested to hear it. -- Berg bberg@... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 18, 2005 Report Share Posted March 18, 2005 I realize that email is not secure, but what happend was unsettling none the less. Luckily for me I don't have criminally relevant communications in my email either. ) ---Carol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 18, 2005 Report Share Posted March 18, 2005 Just as a FYI, most other large free web based email providers do the same as what Google does - it is just that Google became more noticeable for some reason. I know for sure that does the same, and their " content targeted " marketing is more obnoxious than Google's. The difference is that Google targets its adverts based on the contents of the messages, whereas targets its adverts based on your user profile, especially your sex, age, location and industry. Take your pick which one you like or hate more - content targeted or profile targeted. On I can easily predict the type of advertisements I get because it matches my age, sex, and location. For instance, I get mortgage refi ads for my city, cell phone plans and long distance calling plans for my city, ditto for insurance company ads. I get adverts targeted towards men, specifically in my age group, and so on. If you wish to verify this, simply change your user profile and give a zip code in say, California. You will start received popup ads and email spam for mortgage refis in California. Similarly specify your age as a 25 yr old female, interested in beauty and cosmetics, and watch the adverts change ! As others have said, no one is " reading " your emails or profiles - it is just that the definition of " smart computers " is changing with time. My $0.02 CAD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 18, 2005 Report Share Posted March 18, 2005 I have a paid larger mailbox with , so I guess I don't see those ads. Perhaps that is why I noticed the google adds right off. cs Pratick Mukherjee <pratickmukherjee@...> wrote: Just as a FYI, most other large free web based email providers do the same as what Google does - it is just that Google became more noticeable for some reason. I know for sure that does the same, and their " content targeted " marketing is more obnoxious than Google's. The difference is that Google targets its adverts based on the contents of the messages, whereas targets its adverts based on your user profile, especially your sex, age, location and industry. Take your pick which one you like or hate more - content targeted or profile targeted. On I can easily predict the type of advertisements I get because it matches my age, sex, and location. For instance, I get mortgage refi ads for my city, cell phone plans and long distance calling plans for my city, ditto for insurance company ads. I get adverts targeted towards men, specifically in my age group, and so on. If you wish to verify this, simply change your user profile and give a zip code in say, California. You will start received popup ads and email spam for mortgage refis in California. Similarly specify your age as a 25 yr old female, interested in beauty and cosmetics, and watch the adverts change ! As others have said, no one is " reading " your emails or profiles - it is just that the definition of " smart computers " is changing with time. My $0.02 CAD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 18, 2005 Report Share Posted March 18, 2005 On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 23:28:40 -0800, Berg <bberg@...> wrote: > In some sense, all e-mail providers " read " not only subject lines, but also > the full text of the e-mail. I'm not sure how you envision e-mail working, > but it's not at all like the postal model where the content is sealed in an > envelope until it reaches the hands of the recipient. E-mail must be read, > copied, and forwarded (by nonsentient machines) a number of times before it > finally reaches you. > > The only difference is that Google takes an intermediate step: nonsentient > machines, rather than reading the mail as a meaningless stream of > characters, look for individual words and use those to retrieve (dubiously) > relevant ads from their ad database. Those were my thoughts too. No person, I doubt, is actually reading my email. The automated commercial response might seem creepy, but it is no indication that any sentient person is actually paying attention-- and if they WERE paying attention, they'd probably want to do so discreetly, like any other email provider *could* conceivably be doing. I find the ads completely non-intrusive, and in fact haven't even noticed the first one yet. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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