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Where does Google actually say that they won’t read Gmail or Google Docs?

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Re: Where does Google actually say that they won’t read Gmail or Google Docs?

#21

Post by bad_user »

nostrademons wrote: post #17
curiouskat wrote: post #15

What about Facebook? A few weeks ago I had a situation where Facebook contacted me about a job, and it appeared that Facebook may have been reading (or at the least mining) private messages related to my startup ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3035376 ). A Facebook employee replied to the thread but wouldn't provide details.

(I am neither a Facebook employee nor can I speak for them.) I really think that was just coincidence. Considering how many people talk about startups over Facebook messages and how many people have been contacted by Facebook recruiters, there's bound to be at least one person who was contacted by a Facebook recruiter a day or two after talking about startups. It'll seem mighty suspicious to that person, and they'll…

The thing people don't realize is that when contacted by a big company for a job, usually it's a bot that just sent hundreds of emails.

Receiving an email from Google or Facebook is nothing special.

Re: Where does Google actually say that they won’t read Gmail or Google Docs?

#22

Post by rjd »

The same can be said about any IT department. One of my friends sent made the news papers over sending a racially shared joke through the email system to the "boys joke list" in a rather large and respected company.

Turns out some people in the IT department where also helping themselves to the list as a source of entertainment, one of them took extreme offense to the joke and reported it.

After the thing went through its investigation process it was uncovered that the majority of disliked staff in the department where infact reading everyones email. Most of them had set up notification filters to flag emails with there names to see what people where saying about them.

Now the question is how common is this considering how easy it is to do... and how the whole system more or else runs off trust?

I'd say if you have sensitive stuff going through your email that you don't want external parties to see, set up your own server and find someone who isn't petty to look after it.

Re: Where does Google actually say that they won’t read Gmail or Google Docs?

#23

Post by w1ntermute »

Has there been anyone working to make a comprehensive locally-hostable webmail/weboffice suite that replicates Google's functionality? I can imagine that this would be quite poular. Sure, some of the features like Priority Inbox might require complex heuristics, but things like labels should be easy to add support for.

Re: Where does Google actually say that they won’t read Gmail or Google Docs?

#24

Post by angdis »

The real question is not whether google, dropbox or anyone else has explicit "policies" about reading content from users. They're just going to say whatever makes them look good from a marketing and legal perspective. Companies lie all the time, systematically and comprehensively. They act in their own self-interest period. From their point of view it is merely a question of how much they can get away with.

The more interesting question to explore is how much we actually trust these companies with our personal information and how do we decide when we reach a limit to our trust.

Do I believe that google can read my gmail? Yes. Do I think this capability will cause harm to come to me as a result? Hell no. There's nothing "in it" for them to do so for me or millions of others. I "trust" them for this reason.

Re: Where does Google actually say that they won’t read Gmail or Google Docs?

#25

Post by bad_user »

The question is wrong. Any email provider will read your email, at least for spam detection.

The question should be - does Google keep a profile on you based on the content of your emails?

I'm pretty sure they are able to serve ads without keeping a profile, making the decision solely on the content of the email being read. However, that may not be the case.

Re: Where does Google actually say that they won’t read Gmail or Google Docs?

#26

Post by Bud »

ceejayoz wrote: post #19
Retric wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's federal law that Google needs to hand over everything they have when the FBI comes calling on these cases. So Google's only choices are hand over the content or wait 30 minutes until people show up and start dismantling their data-center and then go to jail.

It's federal law that Google needs to hand over everything in the scope of the warrant . No law requires Google to give the FBI "everything they have", especially if there isn't a court order.

Nor is the GP post accurate about what Google's options are, since it's obviously an option to bring in the lawyers, resist, and get a court order to block FBI's actions for a while, if Google were inclined to do so.

I tend to scoff at the notion that FBI would start "dismantling data centers" in the manner described.

Re: Where does Google actually say that they won’t read Gmail or Google Docs?

#28

Post by jurjenh »

bad_user wrote: post #25

The question is wrong. Any email provider will read your email, at least for spam detection. The question should be - does Google keep a profile on you based on the content of your emails? I'm pretty sure they are able to serve ads without keeping a profile, making the decision solely on the content of the email being read. However, that may not be the case.

They keep some sort of record on your emails though - a while ago they mentioned that they were "Bringing better ads to gmail" - what they think are relevant ads based on other emails you've received when they can't find relevant content for the one you're currently viewing.

Not sure what kind of profile this ends up being, but it can be quite entertaining when I get ads about sumo wrestling (because of previous emails from appsumo)...

Re: Where does Google actually say that they won’t read Gmail or Google Docs?

#29

Post by ap22213 »

How many individuals at google have the ability to read a particular person's personal data? If I'm a moderately important person[1], how many individuals, in or outside of google, will have access to any of that data over the life of it? And, how does google internally police against misuse? And, who watches the watchman?

[1] say, 1 in a thousand, of which google has 260,000 such gmail users

Re: Where does Google actually say that they won’t read Gmail or Google Docs?

#30

Post by kenjackson »

rjd wrote: post #22

The same can be said about any IT department. One of my friends sent made the news papers over sending a racially shared joke through the email system to the "boys joke list" in a rather large and respected company. Turns out some people in the IT department where also helping themselves to the list as a source of entertainment, one of them took extreme offense to the joke and reported it. After the thing went throug…

For an IT department the expectation is that people will read your email. I honestly don't think what you describe is rare at all, based on stories I've heard.

And if you work for the gov't your email can often be requested by citizens via FOIA.

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