I was just reading another entry by Steve Outing on the E-Media Tidbits weblog (which I read religiously), rejoining his earlier posts about the new email service by Google, called GMail, which I referred to in a post of my own the other day. (Enough links for ya?)
It doesn't seem Steve, for whom I have respect as a technology/media observer, quite graps just what is so upsetting about GMail. So I figured, maybe I didn't make my reasons for opposing the service clear. enough.
While I think it's creepy that a company might scan my email, on a third party server, and keep on record private information about me (hell, we're talking about thoughts by me), I have to admit if that's all they were doing, and it was up front, I'd have to say it would be anyone's prerogative to allow the treatment, as much as I'd avoid it.
But it isn't just my mail they'd be scanning. It would also be the mail of everyone I correspond with -- most of whom wouldn't have a clue our mail is being read, be it by a robot or a person. So as much as Steve Outing might want to say it's a personal choice, it's not a personal choice like what color underwear to put on. It's a personal choice that affects other people without their knowledge or control.
Beyond that, it isn't just the threat that Google or the federal government might take my personal correspondence and do something with it. Steve is right -- those folks are powerful enough that if they want my email in particular, they would find a way to get it. What I'm worried about is the commercialization of our intimate communications.
I'm just as worried about corporate America's increasingly rapid erosion of any remaining spheres of privacy we might have left, as I am worried about John Ashcroft's goon squad snooping around in my Inbox... and this from a self-described radical who advocates overthrow of the U.S. government!
So, again, I advocate resisting this Google service by all means available. Here are some suggestions: