> what nefarious thing Google could do with my email that is in its interest and that would cause me harm
responding to government information requests without due process. google isn't in the business of protecting civil liberties.
i wonder if they're filtering our email on a mass scale for suspicious activities, as defined by Dept Homeland Security? if they were, it would be classified, and none of us would know the difference.
heck, turns out one of my buddies used to be a drug dealer, i had no idea, and at the time he was all over my social graph. i wonder if it will come up next time I apply for a security clearance. I might never know - an old manager once told me how clearance applications have a way of getting lost in the system when things aren't perfect - once eyebrows are raised, you enter a whole new set of processes and red tape that nobody wants to deal with.
Actually, I would trust Google to challenge government subpoenas more than I would trust my current small webhost, which has probably next to no legal resources that would give it a chance in court.
Now if you and your small webhost is outside the jurisdiction of US courts then that might be a different story... At least that's the only "privacy" reason to not use gmail that I can't immediately dismiss. Anybody have any thoughts on this case?
forget information requests (let alone subpoenas), because neither google nor your webhost is going to resist being strong-armed on a targetted basis. lets look at mass-scale surveillance. lets suppose the DHS wanted 99.9% surveillance over email, and the more 9s you add the exponentially more budget it takes. i doubt your webhost made the cut.
Google isn't in the business of legislating either. Ideally we would hold our government and institutions accountable for protecting our civil liberties, and not rely on corporations to do it for us.
Comments
> what nefarious thing Google could do with my email that is in its interest and that would cause me harm
responding to government information requests without due process. google isn't in the business of protecting civil liberties.
i wonder if they're filtering our email on a mass scale for suspicious activities, as defined by Dept Homeland Security? if they were, it would be classified, and none of us would know the difference.
heck, turns out one of my buddies used to be a drug dealer, i had no idea, and at the time he was all over my social graph. i wonder if it will come up next time I apply for a security clearance. I might never know - an old manager once told me how clearance applications have a way of getting lost in the system when things aren't perfect - once eyebrows are raised, you enter a whole new set of processes and red tape that nobody wants to deal with.
Actually, I would trust Google to challenge government subpoenas more than I would trust my current small webhost, which has probably next to no legal resources that would give it a chance in court.
Now if you and your small webhost is outside the jurisdiction of US courts then that might be a different story... At least that's the only "privacy" reason to not use gmail that I can't immediately dismiss. Anybody have any thoughts on this case?
forget information requests (let alone subpoenas), because neither google nor your webhost is going to resist being strong-armed on a targetted basis. lets look at mass-scale surveillance. lets suppose the DHS wanted 99.9% surveillance over email, and the more 9s you add the exponentially more budget it takes. i doubt your webhost made the cut.
Google isn't in the business of legislating either. Ideally we would hold our government and institutions accountable for protecting our civil liberties, and not rely on corporations to do it for us.