Okay, so Gmail is scarier 'cuz it's better and it doesn't expire/go away like some other accounts, and it pools info into a central database. But who can resist the searchability and wonderousness? And what kind of fuckup is going to e-mail about manure and jet fuel repeatedly till the gov't 'bots flag him/her and put a human on the case anyway? (Not that I'm into manure and jet fuel.)

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Google itself has gone over to the Dark Side.

I dunno.

If you want privacy, don't write it down or tell anyone. Duh. I love Gmail. We switched to Google Aps for Your Domain at work and it's fucking genius.

I prefer to store my email on my own hard drive. I'm not comfortable with it sitting on a server elsewhere, particularly in the US. Just a comfort thing.

I have had one email address or another for over 14 years, and I cannot recall a single instance of needing to find one more than a week or two old. Then again, I have never had to use email for business.

I'm always searching for info I left in my e-mail months (or years) ago. I'd be lost without Gmail's search function. That's just me.

If you want privacy, don't send email at all. There is no email privacy. It all goes unencrypted over various servers and probably gets cached several times on the trip.

Also, you should be aware that all the big email services are permanently saving your email in their archives, even if you delete it. Thus there's nothing scarier about Gmail than any other service. Except that Google has more of a chance of becoming the next Microsoft simply because they're better than the competition.

Google appears to be under a tremendous amount of scrutiny from the community of people who are concerned about privacy. I tend to think those concerns are overwrought and/or I'm willing to put myself at risk because of the quality of the services, but it comforts me that someone is watching with a critical eye.

pretty much everything serves evil. it's all about degrees.

Except that Google has more of a chance of becoming the next Microsoft simply because they're better than the competition.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Now that is funny.

Google's not evil, they have a silly name.

Microsoft is evil because it makes me question the size of my penis.

I suppose no one's heard of PGP. (or, in free software terms, GnuPG)

I use it for exchanging sensitive info (i.e. proprietary source code) for work, I really wish it would get more popular. Everyone should be encrypting email. There's an extension that adds GPG support to Thunderbird, if you use that. Unfortunately, there seems to be no good way to strap it on top of web-based mail services.

PGP, POP, Asian service provider.

Like anything I guess it depends how much your privacy is worth to you. If you think that the service Google offers you is worth more than the amount of privacy you've lost then it might seem like a pretty good deal. I don't use GMail that much but I think it's pretty impressive. What it costs me in privacy is a fair trade (in fact I'd say I'm up on the deal).

My emails are so tame it's actually embarrassing. If I had anything that concerned me, I probably wouldn't use gmail or any web mail for it unless I was posting from an anonymous account from an anonymous IP (web cafe or something).

I mean, even using encryption and a pop account, wouldn't the original unencrypted information still be lurking somewhere on your hard drive? /ignorant

What agropyron said. I've known since I started using email back when some of you whippersnappers were in short-pants that your privacy goes out the window. You should feel relatively confident your email provider won't post your emails on the internet -- look at his guy! he actually responded to a penis pill spam!. But just because you delete the mail from the server when you receive it, doesn't mean it is gone. Snoops could have kept a copy of the mail you sent or received before it even popped up in your inbox.

Knowing this, I keep my personal stuff and terror plotting off email. Instead I communicate with the cell members by ask.metafilter.com questions. Questions about sick kitties. That's why there are so many posts and comments. It is all encrypted dastardly plotting using sock puppets and compromised mefi accounts. I really shouldn't say more, but if you see a sharp rise in questions about overweight tabbies, you might want to stock up on supplies.

:)

We use relationship axmes. They always sound so dumb.

True. My last anonymous axme was:

"Dear Askmetafilter, how can I forgive my partner for cheating on my 1592668 times? What I can I do when he tries to talk to me on a Tuesday, third week of the month, and all I think is "the sparrow will fly"?

Please hope me! Or, actually... don't. Just writing it down here has been therapeutic. Thanks, Askme!

knave: http://www.freenigma.com/

The problem with pgp is that so few people understand it.

Meh. I hereby refuse to respond to e-mails written by anyone who is enough of an ignoramus to refuse to respond to e-mails from Gmail accounts. There, that'll teach 'em!

Actually, I'm no better - I refuse to respond to any message from an AOL account - nothing to do with principles, just that the probability of it coming from a complete idiot approaches 100% and I have better things to do with my time.

Anyone who thinks that anything they send over the Intarweb is truly private is kidding themselves - even if it is encrypted, there will always be ways to get the information. The only saving grace is that there is just so much data flying back and forth that sorting out anything useful is next to impossible.