Legislator seeks to block Gmail

[sde]

Blasting Gmail as a horrific intrusion into Internet users' privacy, a California state senator has introduced legislation to block Google's free e-mail service.

State Sen. Liz Figueroa, a Democrat from the Bay Area city of Fremont, said Thursday that it should be illegal for a company to scan the text of its customers' e-mail correspondence and display relevant advertising--even if customers explicitly agree to the practice in exchange for a gigabyte of storage.

"Telling people that their most intimate and private e-mail thoughts to doctors, friends, lovers and family members are just another direct-marketing commodity isn't the way to promote e-commerce," Figueroa said in a statement, which called Gmail customers' correspondence "a direct-marketing opportunity for Google."

Official Story Here

[Belisarius]

Please don't post more news stories like this. I can't take stupidity on this level. I wonder how this woman will react when she learns about Carnivore? This is assuming she's just stupid and doesn't know already, otherwise she's a hypocrite.

[sde]

hehe, .. gmail was brought up here before ... so i thought it would be a good post.

you are more than welcome to post news too .. just let me know and i'll set u up with access.

[Belisarius]

I basically get all my tech news from Slashdot, so I'm afraid I'm not a very enlightening source.

[Valmont]

Originally posted by Belisarius
Please don't post more news stories like this. I can't take stupidity on this level. I wonder how this woman will react when she learns about Carnivore? This is assuming she's just stupid and doesn't know already, otherwise she's a hypocrite.

She doesn't have to understand anything to understand what basic privacy is about.

[technobard]

Has anyone taken a look at Spymac ? They have a 1 GB email account as well, without the controversy. I signed up for one just because. It's not like I need another email address. Anyway, they are focused on Mac users, but anyone is welcome. The response was so great they are a little behind in registrations, etc., so if you sign up, it might take a while.

[idx]

...well I hate to drag up old threads, but I finally caught up to the rest of the world and got a gmail account. I read the article and it sounds like the typical fluff.... and possibly someone wanting to get their name mentioned/recognition for "protecting our privacy".

Free service that we agree to? Sounds like all bets are off and I'd wager that yahoo and msn do more intrusive scanning/tracking than google. Anyway, the latest KB/faq/privacy statement page seems pretty reasonable. If I'm reading an email about boston terriers it might be cool to have some generated links to the right.

All email I want to keep really private is encrypted and stored on another domain anyway..

Passing a broad-scope bill (unless they've significantly changed it) is a very bad move in my book. That just opens the door for more waste-of-time legislation.


So onto gmail features: seems pretty damn cool so far. I absolutely love the hotkeys, killer search and grouping.


-r