greywar greywar

Gmail Makes Other Netmail Companies Cry...

▼

Gmail Makes Other Netmail Companies Cry...

from JoeUser Forums

     On April 1 Gmail posted a little April Fool's joke called the "Infinity +1" storage solution. It was supposed to allow unlimited storage for all users. Of course this was just for launghs put in reality Gmail did in fact double it's already massive 1GB of free storage to 2GB+ and it increases every second as they add more space. Observe :

      That is an astonishing number even for a pay service much less a free one. Can Yahoo, Hotmail, etc... even hope to compete with this? Google's business acumen leaves me stunned.

 

 

Site Meter
internet
107,279 views 114 replies
Reply #76 from JoeUser Forums Top

Global Information Conspiracy, otherwise known as 'the Beast'?

Also known as "Echelon" in some circles...

Reply #77 from JoeUser Forums Top
This will not become an Echelon thread! I don't mind the mentions so far but if this thing gets hijacked to echelon i will delete like there is no tomorrow!
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #78 from WinCustomize Forums Top

TexasJoe...no

greywar...I'm not naive.

Reply #79 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Echelon comes in if and only if your gmail includes subversive keywords, that "they" define according to security guidelines.
Reply #80 from JoeUser Forums Top
greywar...I'm not naive.


That quote from you certainly suggests that you are Jafo...

Texas Joe - Last warning... honest I will delete that stuff. I mentioned it first which is why i am warning against the thread hijacking. I promise to start another thread on that topic sometime but that isn't what this one is about...
Reply #81 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Perhaps I am typing in an unknown language...but I distinctly said ....

participate in the overt/covert interception of intellectual communications

Last I checked...my bank does not intercept my communications.

And...

As for the building permit reference...reread my post...it was another example of lost 'privacy'....not a comparison at all...just another example of it.

Jafo goes back to English class...to recheck reading comprehension...

Reply #82 from WinCustomize Forums Top
BTW...if the thread is 'altered' through comment deletion, altering its continuity it will need to be removed from Wincustomize.com as well....so I/we are not potentially accused of altering 'history'...
Reply #83 from JoeUser Forums Top

it was an example of something while not being a comparison to it? How do you manage that?

Last I checked...my bank does not intercept my communications.

Because you gave them permission it isn't interception? Communication is more than email you know... Also you leave out that you were not simply talking about banks in your original quote...

 

if the thread is 'altered' through comment deletion, altering its continuity

the only commentary I would delete would be the "echelon" business... it shouldn't become a problem considering the posted warnings...

Reply #84 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Reply #85 from JoeUser Forums Top
Jafo - thanks for pointing out the Wincustomize bit.... I am actually totally unfamiliar with the protocols involved on that site. Always wondered what the differences were from there to JU.
Reply #86 from WinCustomize Forums Top

greywar....there's cross-traffic between the 2 sites...in relevant 'sections'..eg, this one [Internet].

The biggest 'real' issue is that JU 'may' have obscene language...'f', 'c', etc....which is not 'desired' on WC.

Otherwise we do not touch JU threads...but some in the past have been butchered by their author....removing every comment that did not 'suit' his stance....and those are bumped back to JU so no 'editing' stigma can be aimed at the WC admins...

 

Re communication....you're getting into semantics now...and I am being literal.

Communication being the message of the email...its content.  To be pedantic, my bank does not intercept my email, my mail, my telephone calls, my verbal oration on a street corner.

None of that.

However...Gmail 'would like' to intercept my email, extract 'data' and on-sell that 'knowledge' to a third party.  It's actually how they finance their process.  They are gathering an information database....exactly as you accuse the Visa card companies of doing....yet you can see the latter, but not the former....to me that's selective blindness...

Sure they say 'no human interaction', so what?...it's still interaction, is it not?

Reply #87 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Oh...forgot to mention....

You know the BEST THING about Gmail?

They DON'T NEED to on-sell your email addy.....they ARE your email addy.

Captive audience.

Unlike all those data mining nasties out there we all know and hate...that strip your addresses and names, etc and pass them on to Evil Roy Slade ..... Gmail already has them...and has good old Roy ready and willing to provide the spam...just for you.

It's a marriage made in heaven.....just when several Countries have outlawed spam, really knobbling the poor, distressed Advertiser...along comes Gmail with the Final Solution.

Clever little dickie birds.

Wish I'd a thought of it....

Reply #88 from JoeUser Forums Top
It is forwarded to an Advertising company to indicate YOU as a potential customer for a product...If information is NOT sent to 'other companies' how is it you are targetted by those other companies?


You're not targeted. They pay G-Mail to show their ads to people who will likely show interest. It doesn't leave google. Did you not know this?

I'll be buggered if I'm going to unwittingly be an Advertiser's dummy....


Given the choice between paying for something or not paying for something but being "forced" to accomodate innocuous text ads on the far right of the screen... frankly, it's not much of a choice. And btw, google doesn't sell information to companies that spam. No spam a gmail account receives is because it read your e-mails. You must have misunderstood.

what do they with the files people upload for storage


Nothing. It's difficult to parse an MP3- and that's coming from a person who's tried

I'm targetting ... how people are willing to distinguish between a human or a robot gatherer of information


Only ignorance would claim that it's the same thing. It's like being embarassed because your vaccuum saw you in the shower.

Dan
Reply #89 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Evil Roy Slade


I like that movie.
Reply #90 from WinCustomize Forums Top
greywar: I apologize for my digression. I misunderstood your warning as I had honestly not noticed you were moderating here.
Reply #91 from JoeUser Forums Top

to me that's selective blindness

Jafo - I am not blind to either one. I just maintain that neither of them are evil or an invasion of privacy. Boh are simply an exchange of info for a service.

I apologize for my digression

Texas Joe- No need to apologize brother. I brought the topic up so I felt the need to warn against a thread hijacking. I would have only been a problem if the commentary had run off in that direction

They DON'T NEED to on-sell your email addy

Jafo - Yes, because they don't send spam. Ever.

Reply #92 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Yes, because they don't send spam. Ever.


Me got no spam yet.
Reply #93 from JoeUser Forums Top
Wow I write one little comment and it turns into this...
Reply #94 from JoeUser Forums Top

Wow I write one little comment and it turns into this...

Feel the power...

Reply #95 from JoeUser Forums Top
Privacy is a touchy subject for some... especially touchy for those who forgot their morning meds or tin foil hats It's probably one of the most misunderstood issues in IT there is. It has come to the forefront because now people are suddenly aware of their data being passed around, whereas before it was all done in the smoke-filled back rooms of your local bank.

My point with all of this was that Google is no worse (in fact they are far better) than most brick-and-mortar institutions and services we use on a daily basis, and to single out them and call them evil while happily continuing the use of those other services is paranoid and hypocritical to say the least. It's easy to go after Google simply because one can without suffering for it. Boycotting banks and credit card companies however can put a serious cramp on your lifestyle and make it difficult to participate in society. Since we can't fight the evils we are forced to put up with, we place most of our anger on those we do not have to use.
Reply #96 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Zoomba....maybe it's an 'age' thing...that has you so presumptuous of others' 'touchiness' and/or naivete.  23 is old enough to determine nothing is left needing to be known.

There IS  no 'fact' that Google is better, or worse than anything/one else...certainly nothing you may have presumed to have demonstrated.

FYI...in Australia, 'Meds' is a brand of tampon...and I for one never forget my tinfoil hat...It's nailed to my paranoia and under a pile of last night's hypocrisies....

Reply #97 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Okay, I've been using it for about three weeks and I love it. I started out letting my contacts know what my new g-mail address is and a little information about g-mail and at that time I had 2080mb of storage. Everytime I log in I have more storage!!! Unfortunately, know one want to use my new gmail account. I only have one friend who consistently emails to that account. I love the flexibility. I can use POP for my outlook which hotmail did away with. So I use my cable email address and gmail, and whoever wants to still use those other accounts just won't reach me because I'm not checking on all those accounts that don't do what I want them to.
Reply #98 from JoeUser Forums Top
Jafo -
I don't profess to know everything... far from it. But I do know that you're singling out gmail while ignoring other offenders as a matter of convenience. You're asserting that gmail is invading your privacy when they're actually doing no such thing. You went on about your communication being passed on to a third party when no third party existed (unless you count the company who stores the email as the third party, which is kind of silly because then every email you send to anyone anywhere is then intercepted by a third party)

Google is incredibly transparents as to how their services work. If you want to toss out that there are no "facts" supporting my reasoning, there are even fewer facts supporting yours. Their systems are pretty well documented and explained. Your emails are not being read or comprehended, they're being keyword scanned, just like any server-side spam filter your own provider might use.

Why do you trust your data to Stardock? There's nothing saying they can't or don't do mean things with your information. You trust in their sense of whats right to not do such things. Who's to say that Google is not also worthy of such trust? You're saying Google is guilty of doing such horrible things without a shred of actual proof. It's just a gut feeling/distrust for a large(ish) company.

Oh, and I guess there is a magic age at which you suddenly do know everything and can conveniently dismiss those younger than you because they haven't reached your own magical age of enlightenment. I may not know everything, but I am able to understand that there are far worse invsions we allow every day, that google parsing our emails to display two sponsored ad links at the bottom of an email is chump change. You forfeit more rights by using Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia Dreamweaver than by using GMail. There are much bigger fish to fry than Google. I'd personally love to nail Sovereign Bank to the wall since as soon as I opened my account with them I got flooded with Providian credit card offers.

On a completely unrelated note... I'm going to have to add "Meds" to my list of amusing words with different meanings in other parts of the world. My favorite so far is "Rubber" (pencil eraser in the UK, a condom in the US)
Reply #99 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Ahh, nevermind... Forgot to read to the end.
Reply #100 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Why do you trust your data to Stardock

Simple....I know the people at Stardock.

Obviously you 'know' google and therefore trust your data with them.

I don't.

Please remember..I am NOT 'singling out Gmail'....this is a thread about Gmail, not about privacy erosion in general.

IF perchance it was a thread about your 'Sovereign Bank' then maybe I'd be talking about them, instead.

BTW...if your bank disseminates your information the cure is....change bank.  I know I would...