Google Says Those Who Email Gmail Users Have ‘No Legitimate Expectation of Privacy’

[Gomyway]

Here's a tool with which you can see what's going on with Gmail or MS Exchange...

https://immersion.media.mit.edu/

[StrandedBusinessPerson]

I want Google to help me navigate my life. Those who accept the future and use it to their benefit will benefit enormously compared with those who try to opt out.

I tend to agree with you. But my beef with google is that they are "search shaping" and not returning the complete picture, but just the picture they want you to see (or perhaps the picture they think you want to see). Outside of that, the email service is great, and using Apple mail as a client means I hardly see any spam at all. On the reporting, it has been said that over 400 million users of Gmail are affected by this US-based law. That does not seem right, as individual countries could/should pass protective laws to restrain Google. Perhaps they already have... I can't see this flying in France, for example.

[retell]

If you're not paying for it, you are the product.

you're still the product and they have your name ,adress, and bank account/ creditcard info

you cannot " buy" privacy from NSA

[ETatBKK]

If you're not paying for it, you are the product.

start from day 1, all FREE web services, mail services, messaging, forums are searchable. gmail is just one of thousand, same here on TV. this is the ground rule of FREE services, you have choice though.

I am just one of the 2 billion internet users. if anyone interested to spy on my mails and messages, feel free too.

[hawker9000]

What people don't get is how incredibly thin and temporal the line between "national security concerns" and "personal privacy concerns" actually is. Do you really think that if the information exists, people besides actual & legitimate security enforcement agencies (including outright criminal enterprise) won't eventually be able to get their hands on it if they want to, even if they can't now; or that it won't ever be used even by government for non-legitimate reasons (ex. IRS political targeting...)? ...that it will somehow remain exempt from other legal subpoenae, perhaps over a divorce or business settlement or as "evidence" in some other civil or criminal proceeding unrelated to national security? And besides that, we live in a world where government decides for itself which laws it's going to enforce and against whom, and how they're going to be interpreted, even if you think the law does protect your data. To take a snapshot of data handling today and be satisfied with it (if you are) is one thing. To assume that those methods will never change is beyond naive.

Just don't put anything in any email (Gmail, private ISP, doesn't ultimately matter...) that you wouldn't be happy to ever have posted somewhere in your local newspaper (and attributed to you by name). Encryption will help, as long as you can't be forced to hand over the keys... Anything else, and a tinfoil hat certainly isn't going to protect you... The same goes for just about anything you do online...

[sustento]

Just don't put anything in any email (Gmail, private ISP, doesn't ultimately matter...) that you wouldn't be happy to ever have posted somewhere in your local newspaper (and attributed to you by name). Encryption will help, as long as you can't be forced to hand over the keys... Anything else, and a tinfoil hat certainly isn't going to protect you... The same goes for just about anything you do online...

You can borrow mine if you want

[hawker9000]

Just don't put anything in any email (Gmail, private ISP, doesn't ultimately matter...) that you wouldn't be happy to ever have posted somewhere in your local newspaper (and attributed to you by name). Encryption will help, as long as you can't be forced to hand over the keys... Anything else, and a tinfoil hat certainly isn't going to protect you... The same goes for just about anything you do online...

You can borrow mine if you want

Oh, 'looks better on you!

[stoli]

I used BTYahoo until it was hacked. I had Gmail as a backup and changed it to primary. I do worry about Gmail being connected to G-everything-else though.

I kept the BT account empty as a backup, now they are scrapping Yahoo, who never admitted their vulnerability, so I might go back to them for mail I want to be more secure if the new service is good.

I rarely get spam or see ads in Gmail, poss due to AVG.

Why do you worry? Google Now is the key to the future. Personally I want Google's computers to know all about me. I have nothing to hide. Increasingly Google Now works out what I want to know, what I like, where I am going. In five years this technology will be an essential to everyday living. Sure there are some people who will want to go back to nature and the past but I want the future. I want Google to help me navigate my life. Those who accept the future and use it to their benefit will benefit enormously compared with those who try to opt out.

Sorry, but I have to disagree. You put a leash on a dog to control them on walks. You are letting Google, NSA, and all others put a leash on you to "to help you navigate your life". Extremely sad. Sit boy, sit!

[Loptr]

I consider the email deliverer (gmail) as the same as the post office that delivers regular mail and I sure don't expect the post office going through my mail unless they have a warrant.

Perhaps you should read this then.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/us/monitoring-of-snail-mail.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[hawker9000]

I consider the email deliverer (gmail) as the same as the post office that delivers regular mail and I sure don't expect the post office going through my mail unless they have a warrant.

Perhaps you should read this then.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/us/monitoring-of-snail-mail.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

I think many people have that common-sense understanding, that email enjoys the same protections as snail mail, but it's simply not proving to be so. Obama & Holder should just come right out & say it (though that's not really quite their style...): if you're thinking "privacy" or "anonymity", why you're just plain living in the past. We can & are collecting & filtering your email and all of your online activities; police agencies with their security cameras and flybots are surveying you daily; your personal medical, financial, legal and business records either are almost all online or very soon will be, and are subject to government inspection on demand and without your consent or even your knowledge. You can trust us to never ever invade the privacy of your own home however.

(Oh, and to all you foil-hat naysayers - thank-you for your hard work! We like 'em fat, dumb & happy - but mostly dumb! And you're helping. You've even got some of those silly sheep, er people, boasting that they have nothing to hide! (sheesh, there's one born every minute, ain't there??.....) )

[Beetlejuice]

The facts are that whatever we do online is being logged by some company or other, including Government agencies. Probably even our posts here on Thai visa and our browsers are also keeping tabs on us.

It really is a case of, big brother is watching us. Google business is all about people business, which is big business.

Just type in a few of your details, including phone numbers, email addresses, names, nick names into search engines or people finders and you maybe shocked as to what information there is about you online. You`re even more vulnerable if you have an unusual or less common name. For example if you are a Smith or a Jones, you would be much more difficult to find, because there millions of them.

Changing email providers will not make the slightest difference, they`re all at it. The law is I believe, that once we click on to these services, it is an agreement by us for them to log our information.

Nothing we can do other than not use the Internet at all, or in other words, they have us by the short and curly`s. And also, whatever we do online can be taken down as evidence and used against us. .

[A1Str8]

I understand Google. As a huge company, it protects itself. I would do the same. On the other side when was the last time, web based email was secure? It has never happened and never will because of not just the US but every government.

So we are back to the same conclusion again and again:

and that is..use encryption.

[KRS1]

I used BTYahoo until it was hacked. I had Gmail as a backup and changed it to primary. I do worry about Gmail being connected to G-everything-else though.

I kept the BT account empty as a backup, now they are scrapping Yahoo, who never admitted their vulnerability, so I might go back to them for mail I want to be more secure if the new service is good.

I rarely get spam or see ads in Gmail, poss due to AVG.

Why do you worry? Google Now is the key to the future. Personally I want Google's computers to know all about me. I have nothing to hide. Increasingly Google Now works out what I want to know, what I like, where I am going. In five years this technology will be an essential to everyday living. Sure there are some people who will want to go back to nature and the past but I want the future. I want Google to help me navigate my life. Those who accept the future and use it to their benefit will benefit enormously compared with those who try to opt out.

sheeple

[KRS1]

NSA spies on every email, not just Google.

As a matter of fact they just detected the keywords in my post and are seeing if I am a threat. Right now they are searching my old post to see about my character.

The NSA has 18 acres of computer processing power to find and detect keywords. The intention of the internet was to have power of observation all along.

[hawker9000]

I used BTYahoo until it was hacked. I had Gmail as a backup and changed it to primary. I do worry about Gmail being connected to G-everything-else though.

I kept the BT account empty as a backup, now they are scrapping Yahoo, who never admitted their vulnerability, so I might go back to them for mail I want to be more secure if the new service is good.

I rarely get spam or see ads in Gmail, poss due to AVG.

Why do you worry? Google Now is the key to the future. Personally I want Google's computers to know all about me. I have nothing to hide. Increasingly Google Now works out what I want to know, what I like, where I am going. In five years this technology will be an essential to everyday living. Sure there are some people who will want to go back to nature and the past but I want the future. I want Google to help me navigate my life. Those who accept the future and use it to their benefit will benefit enormously compared with those who try to opt out.

sheeple

Amazing, isn't it?

[Wavefloater]

I watched a new documentary yesterday called "Terms and Conditions May Apply".

Have you ever actually read the agreements you confirm when joining internet services? All they basically do (in endless legal jargon) is to get you to agree to having no rights to privacy.

It will give you a good idea of just how much we are spied on via services like Google, Twitter, Paypal, and especially Facebook. I could never understand why people are so eager to share personal information about themselves and their friends on Facebook. At one point in the film, it reveals how Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook's founder) called people who supplied the information he used (to become so rich) fools. Yes, it seems that Mark Zuckerberg is calling Facebook users fools for giving him all that valuable personal information.

Somebody else mentioned the US government's NSA (national Security Agency). It's huge and their job is solely to store all digital communication then use computer applications to scan it for patterns and keywords.

Edited August 20, 2013 by Wavefloater