Comments on: Google Mail https://globalspin.com/2004/04/google-mail/ a glimpse into the tiny mind of Chris Radcliff Sat, 01 May 2010 03:53:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8 By: Chris https://globalspin.com/2004/04/google-mail/comment-page-1/#comment-352 Wed, 07 Apr 2004 16:36:49 +0000 http://globalspin.com/wp/2004/04/01/304/#comment-352 I think there are valid concerns, but this really falls under the TANSTAAFL [1] clause. Google is providing an expensive service for free, which means they’re going to make their money elsewhere. Microsoft already does this with the Hotmail service, and Yahoo! collects even more information with their mail service, and I think it’s highly unlikely that either of them are as forthcoming with their privacy policies as Google has been.

That said, there are two aspects to Gmail that should be clarified: one, that Google is going to make its money off advertising, not by reading people’s mail; two, that Google states clearly:

“We will never rent, sell or share information that personally identifies you for marketing purposes without your express permission.
We serve highly relevant ads and other information as part of the service using our unique content-targeting technology. No human reads your email to target ads or related information to you without your consent.”

Sounds pretty straighforward to me.

[1] TANSTAAFL = There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

]]> By: Deana https://globalspin.com/2004/04/google-mail/comment-page-1/#comment-351 Wed, 07 Apr 2004 12:51:59 +0000 http://globalspin.com/wp/2004/04/01/304/#comment-351 Chris, any thoughts on this?
http://salon.com/tech/wire/2004/04/06/gmail/index.html

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