Does Gmail breach wiretap laws?

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Privacy is an important issue. I think we, as a society, should be concerned not only about WHERE aspects of our personal information are held, but also the ACCURACY of that information.

However, Gmail is one of the most darn benign tools I've come across, and the privacy-hoopla surrounding it is simply incredible.

FACT: Unless you use encyrption, when you send an e-mail to *ANY* account at a major ISP or organization (AOL, Earthlink, Comcast, UCLA, Nestle, etc.), you can and should expect the following:

- Your e-mail is being sent in plain text.
- People can use sniffers to access the packets as your e-mail travels across the Internet.
- Your e-mail is being SCANNED by anti-virus programs, SCANNED by anti-spam programs, and possibly SCANNED by a program's filter rules and ACTED UPON by these systems (e.g., placed in an inbox, in a topical folder, in a spam bin, etc.)
- Your e-mail is being STORED on a server somewhere and/or on a likely unsecured laptop or desktop.
- Your e-mail is being COPIED onto backup tape, backup CDs, or even PRINTED out by the recipient for later reference.
- Your e-mail may be FORWARDED to others by the recipient.

Now let's look at what happens when you send an e-mail to a Gmail account:
- It's passed along, in plain text, through the internet.
- It will be scanned, stored, and possibly forwarded.
- The scanning will trigger one or more things to happen (placed in the Spam folder, tagged with a user-selected label, possibly have ads displayed in the window next to, NOT IN, the e-mail)
- It will be stored, and possibly forwarded and/or printed.

Notice something remarkable? Yes, that's right... e-mail sent to Gmail accounts is treated in practically the same way as e-mail sent anywhere else.

Want to know more about Gmail and privacy? Check out my detailed blog entry here:
http://www.bladam.com/archives/0404241655.htm

Regards,
Adam
http://www.bladam.com/

Posted by: ThatAdamGuy   Posted on: 05/05/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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