"scanning" e-mail [WAS: 3 Free Gmail invites]

Thu Aug 19 17:55:46 UTC 2004

On Aug 19, 2004, at 1:39 PM, Lou Katz wrote:

> On Wed, Aug 18, 2004 at 10:13:29PM -0700, Jonathan Nichols wrote:
>>
>> Joshua Brady wrote:
>>
>>> I've got 2 Gmail invites up for grabs for the first 2 to email me 
>>> offlist.
>>>
>>
>> You know, I'm having trouble finding people that *don't* have 
>> gmail.com
>> accounts already. :P
>
> Because G-mail scans INCOMING mail without the sender's consent, we 
> will NEVER
> have a G-mail account and have considered blocking them. We actively 
> discourage
> our clients from using this service. If you want to let a service scan 
> YOUR mail,
> it is your perogative, but you cannot give them permission to scan MY 
> mail to you.

I believe your last statement is factually incorrect.  I absolutely 
_can_ do anything I please with "your" e-mail you send to me.  Not only 
that, I also believe I _may_ do it.  You send me e-mail, the e-mail is 
now mine.  I can post it publicly, put it into a search engine, or 
deleted it, and you have no say in the matter.  Might not be polite, 
but it certainly it not illegal.  Don't like it, don't send me e-mail.  
(Please. :)

Google is simply indexing mail for their users as a service - an 
unobtrusive, completely benign service just like virus checking or 
procmail scripts which have been used for years.  And it certainly does 
not require the consent of the sender.  How I manage my mailbox is MY 
business.  You have exactly zero say over whether I let Google do it or 
Mail.app.

Perhaps you are worried that Google will read your e-mail?  Or maybe 
let others read it?  Well, I hope you never send e-mail to anyone who 
does not run their own dedicated mail server on their own dedicated 
hardware and encrypt the SMTP session.  'Cause you are worried about 
something that has been happening for decades.  (Plus I think  you have 
to be more than a little arrogant to think anyone at Google gives a 
fart about the e-mail you send.)

But hey, it's your e-mail, send it or not as you please.  I like the 
idea behind G-mail, I just can't deal with a web-based e-mail client.  
You don't, then don't use it.

Just please don't spout factual fallacies like saying I can't give 
someone permission to do things to my inbox.

-- 
TTFn,
patrick