Tens of millions of users around the world rely on Google's Gmail service as their emails provider, but a recent legal filing search giant just might be enough to convince some of them to choose a different solution. Google is currently in the movements in the judicial system to defend against a collective complaint about their data mining practices email.
The big question in this case, in my opinion, this is privacy. Do you belong to Google Gmail account for you? Google Does the right to read and check your email if you use Gmail?
Apparently, Google Gmail users do not necessarily have the legal rights to complete privacy you might expect.
"As a sender of a letter to a coworker can not be surprised that the assistant recipient opens the card, people who use email based on the web today can not be surprised if your communications are processed recipient by provider ECS (Electronic Communications Service) in the course of delivery, "said Google's legal writing.
Google brief further notes that "... numerous courts have held to automatic processing of email is so widely understood and accepted that the act of sending an email is the automated processing implied consent as a matter of law."
Really?
If an assistant (yes ... of course) I would expect out the mail at my desk unless I say otherwise. I do not expect to open the mail unless I explicitly told him to do so. I'm fine with the treatment by which I understand is the handling, delivery and sorting, but not the opening. That's where I suspect that Google has crossed a line that might make some people feel very uncomfortable.
Microsoft has been aiming to privacy issues of Google Gmail for some time through its "Scroogled". In a heated debate at the RSA security conference earlier this year, Keith Enright, senior privacy counsel of Google, Scroogled of Microsoft campaign called "intellectually dishonest."
At that time, Enright argued that Google uses automated algorithms for checking email, which allows for placement of contextual advertising.
Personally I have no problem with ads in Gmail (heck, even I clicked a few relevant). I have a problem if Google is reading my email without my consent. (For the record, I do not think Google is doing that. Placing ads by an automatic algorithm is very different from a human reading my mail.) On the other hand, if you are using Gmail as a free service, the terms of use (as well as the License Agreement End User) are actually owned by Google and can be changed at your discretion. For corporate users using Google Apps, the ads do not appear and I would expect that means the same "treatment" that allows Google to place contextual ads does not occur.
It is very important for the company IT users understand the potential risks and limitations of a free online service provided for you has no explicit guarantee. I suspect the email systems in the facilities in the house will remain the technology of choice for those who are particularly risk averse when it comes to privacy.
0 commentaires: