Gmail users shouldn't expect email privacy

[jonsie]

 http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/14/google-gmail-users-privacy-email-lawsuit

I agree with the last comment:

"....sending an email is like giving a letter to the Post Office. I expect the Post Office to deliver the letter based on the address written on the envelope. I don't expect the mail carrier to open my letter and read it.

"Similarly, when I send an email, I expect it to be delivered to the intended recipient with a Gmail account based on the email address; why would I expect its content will be intercepted by Google and read?"

[perksie]

I'm not surprised and have never regarded any email unless encrypted to be secure.

Naughty though!

You can never relax if you feel that someone might just be taking a peek at your private messages.

How to digitally encrypt email messages with Thunderbird:

https://support.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/kb/digitally-signing-and-encrypting-messages

[Anonymous]

They can read my email if they want...nothing exciting in there anyway 

Any financial transactions go through another email account, not my Gmail one.

But the sad fact of the matter, as perksie states, you cant regard any email to be secure anyway unless its encrypted. Any email that isn't encrypted "could" be intercepted during transmission by a hacker.

In saying that, you would hope that your inbox would be sage from the prying eyes of your provider! 

[perksie]

Encryption only covers the content of an email of course, details like who sent it and to whom and when and using which provider will always be on show.

This is 40 year old technology and security was never considered when it was designed.

You can read why Silent Circle has closed down it's email encryption service:

http://www.zdnet.com/the-truth-about-why-silent-circle-silenced-their-secure-email-service-700001930...

There is no hiding place...........

Peer to peer where  all a supplier knows about you is your phone number, user name and password and no metadata is used or recorded is probably the best security available.

[Anonymous]

This quote from the report made my mind up never to use G Mail !


It quotes Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman: "Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it."

[Anonymous]

So I found this article where someone has actually poured over the law filing and hasn't just created a sensationalised headline!

http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/14/4621474/yes-gmail-users-have-an-expectation-of-privacy

"Unfortunately for outrage junkies, there's just nothing here. First of all, Google's argument isn't even about Gmail users, who are covered by Google's unified privacy policy. Google's argument is about non-Gmail users who haven't signed Google's terms of service. It's right there in black and white — the heading for the section literally starts with the words "The Non-Gmail Plaintiffs."

[Anonymous]

It was pretty obvious (to me anyway) that Google's tack on privacy regarding their services wasn't all that. This article just verifies my past thoughts and makes me glad that I got rid of my Google accounts and limited my use of their services in both the short-and-long-term.

They forced everyone with a Google account to join their beta social-network (its name eludes me now), then quickly un-did that after mass-protest. And now, anyone that has a Google account that is connected to youtube has to "upgrade" their account, i.e. join their new social-network (Google+) or if you don't agree to the "upgrade", you can no longer use all of you youtube channel feature(s) or post comments on youtube videos.

You cannot even individually disconnect from any of Google's service(s) in your account settings when you no longer use (one/or more of their services) anymore. It's just all there, until you destroy the account.

(Yes I do not like social-networking.)

[Anonymous]

Meh, I have 2 Gmail accounts, they can snoop on both for all I care, I hardly ever use them anyway.