Chris Posted April 5, 2004 Report Share Posted April 5, 2004 This week should have seen a public relations triumph for Google. The company began offering a free e-mail service with 100 times as much storage as Yahoo's $59.99 service. Instead the criticism has taken Google by surprise, as privacy advocates who had never before voiced criticism stepped forward. Google has previously responded to privacy concerns by saying, "we're nice, trust us" or pointing users to the company's mission statement of "do no evil". Such trite sentiments didn't work this time; even The Drudge Report piled in. Google executives had ignored a fierce internal debate over the ethics of the service and on Wednesday afternoon rushed out a jokey April 1 press release, ostensibly to trump a New York Times scoop. But it isn't so much Google searching email that has caused the anxiety from privacy watchdogs this week, as the company's confused retention policy. What will Google do with that data? Google's cookie is an index for all your searches until 2038, and sits alongside an Orkut cookie that tells Google - or friendly law enforcement officials or marketeers - exactly who you are. Google's Gmail will complete the picture, indexing private electronic discourse under the main Google search cookie.More | Here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tankus Posted April 5, 2004 Report Share Posted April 5, 2004 The Gary Glitters of the world ...be warned Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted April 6, 2004 Report Share Posted April 6, 2004 I'm perfectly happy with Outlook Express via NTL thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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