I wasn't going to chime in on the topic if Gmail, but an article at The Register prompted some commentary. The article is essentially about the possible intrusions on your privacy that Google's e-mail service will allow.

The Register is one of the few news sources I try to stay away from, because they seem to prioritize controversy over serious reporting. This article is no exception, as they try to have it seem like an answer of Google's Larry Page is in regard to a completely different topic.

Google's Gmail will complete the picture, indexing private electronic discourse under the main Google search cookie. "Once users register for Gmail, Google would be able to make [the] connection [between web searches, your Orkut profile and your Gmail correspondence], if it chose to." The Register

In theory, yeah. But when they asked Larry Page about this, they didn't; they asked something else, but presented the answer to seem like it:

Rather than allay these fears, Google's accident-prone co-founder Larry Page refused to rule out a future policy of 'joining the dots'. A simple "No, Never" would have prevented much of the damage. But asked if Google planned to link Gmail users to their Web search queries, Page replied:

"It might be really useful for us to know that information. I'd hate to rule anything like that out." The Register

The Register attempted a bit of a bait n' switch trick there; they're referring to creating an extensive user profile, containing Orkut data, web searches and Gmail correspondence, but the question Larry Page won't say "No, never" to, was simply that if Google planned to "link" Gmail users to web searches. What does that even mean, exactly? To "link" Gmail users to web searches?

It could mean that the ads you see on Google and on Gmail, may be relevant to the recent web searches you've made, and the recent mail you've sent and received in Gmail. But it definately does not have to mean that Google are planning on creating extensive user profiles with information from all their services. While that too is theoretically possible, it's probably not what Larry Page was talking about.

The Register's article, however, doesn't make more assumptions about what the Gmail service will be about than many other articles on the topic have done, to make assumptions about free unreleased web based services seems to be a very alluring thing, everybody's doing it nowadays. (By the way, Gmail is a centralized web service, ooh the horror!)

Other articles have been saying that it would be "creepy" to have ads served on matters related to the e-mail you're reading from a friend (although I personally don't see why), but articles regarding Gmail's potential abuse of one's privacy is first and foremost regarding the fact that "computers will read your e-mail".

Clearly there's something of a reality gap in the upper echelons of the Googleplex. There's a disconnect between the jokey launch, and the statement that "machines, not humans" will read email that's every bit as unnerving as a President making jokes while citizens are being dismembered. The Register

Machines read your e-mail all the time. This is news to only very few people: one's e-mail is being machine read all the time, especially by web mail services. Web mail services need to process, or "read", the e-mail to 1) look for spam, 2) remove security hazards such as malicious code, and 3) present the e-mail in the browser. This is nothing new, every web mail service does this, assuming that they have security and spam prevention systems.

The machines that read e-mail, not to mention all other electronic information, are not evil robots snickering to themselves as their database of human profiles gets bigger and bigger, breaking out in hollow laughter once in a while as they contemplate how they will use this information against the race of men when they launch their plans to take over the world. This isn't a cartoon.

In my opinion, the only rational reason to be worried about Gmail, is if Google indeed does create extensive personal profiles, and then sells or shares these profiles with third parties (which Google have explicitly said that they won't). If Gmail is only about providing context sensitive ads, relating to the e-mail you're currently reading, and perhaps other recent e-mails you've sent or received, then I don't see any reason to be worried about one's privacy.

I'm definately getting a Gmail account. If I know Google (and I think I do), Gmail will be user-friendly, light-weight and unobtrusive. I expect the spam filter to be very good, since text processing and that kind of thing is what Google does best. It won't be my primary e-mail, it'll be the one I register at forums, the one I use when I sign up for different web services, etc. In short, it will be my Hotmail replacement.

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