Do I really want Google reading my mail?

[jimbeetle]

I've been using GMail as my main catch all account for quite some time. It's simple, convenient, yada, yada. I'm now starting to rethink that.

Got a reminder e-mail earlier for a get together of some old (and I mean old) high school buddies. The main sentence reads:

Just confirmed the table for ten at Luger's this Friday at 5:45pm.From that Google displayed an "Add to calendar" link to the right of the message:

Add to calendar
Peter Lugers
Fri Apr 11, 2008Maybe it's just because this is the first time I noticed this. Or maybe it's just hitting me wrong today. For whatever reason it seems to be a bit more intrusive than I expected. One of the more striking things I noticed was that the good folks at G were able to equate "Luger's" with "Peter Lugers" and "this Friday" with "Apr 11" -- all on the fly. I suppose it can do this purely on a best guess basis or (?more likely?) referring back to the string of e-mails from a month or so ago that first set up the date.

So, is it just me today finding this a bit more intrusive than I like? Or is this exactly what I agreed to when I started using the service?

Side note: As good as G appears to be in interpreting the contents of my e-mail it just can't seem to get the ads right:

Lowest Price UTV
John Boos Blocks on Sale
I Beat the Recession
Cheap Butcher Blocks
Coffee Table

[Dan01]

Interesting Jim.

I have a couple Google Mail accounts, but I read them all with my email client - Eudora. They download to my computer so I never see any ads. Amazingly, Google gives that service for free. Yahoo and MS charge for POP service like that.

I was just thinking that it would be great if Google had email reminders kind of like Google Alerts for stuff like that.

Did you sign up for a calendar? Maybe that is why they offered to add it to your calendar. I have a couple calendars via Google too. One is private while the other is public. I wonder which calendar they would add it to?

You bring up a privacy concern I never thought of. They know what websites we visit and what we watch on YouTube etc. I never thought of them reading my email. I will have to remember to use my domain email for things that can get me in trouble. :)

[beu]

If you think about it, they have to scan the contents of your email either way. If Google, Yahoo, MSN, Earthlink, HotMail, MSN AOL or other didn't scan contents of your email you'd get spam email and lots of pesky viruses.

After all, it's not like Googlers read, print and post your funny emails all over the "Plex". :)

[jimbeetle]

Dan, yeah, I might have opened a calendar account at one point to take a look at it as a solution for something.

Beu, sure. Guess it just hit me a bit weird today.

<added>
I think I know what bugged me: G not just scanning the stuff in order to serve ads, but actively extracting and manipulating the info in the e-mail.
</added>

[beu]

<added>
I think I know what bugged me: G not just scanning the stuff in order to serve ads, but actively extracting and manipulating the info in the e-mail.
</added>

I understand it's weird but they're not watching you, they're profiling you!:eek::eek::eek:

[Dan01]

I read a post recently where the guy had a hotmail account that he used when he purchased a couple domains. This is what I think happened. He never checked his hotmail account and it expired. Someone came in and signed up for the same name under hotmail a little later and transfered his domains to another server. He lost control over his domains. Now he has a legal fight on his hands.

That is the good thing about Google - You can check your email with a client rather than logging in - and it is a free service, unlike Hotmail etc. There is just a couple settings up there. That way you don't lose your G-Mail account like this other guy.

[j0nyDzine]

I understand it's weird but they're not watching you, they're profiling you!:eek::eek::eek:

Wow BEU, I feel MUCH better!!! lol
...The thing that scares me is the idea of a government body having the access to do something with that data... They collect a TON of info about you over time...
In all honesty, I'm the kind of guy that doesn't like ANYONE to know my interests outside of people I expressly tell...