No...it wasn't...and there's no need to insinuate paranoia on my part.

Read the conditions.

Use cognitive skills.

Understand what privacy you are willing to dispense with.

I've given up on privacy a long time ago as far as communications go. My phone lines (just as everybody's) may/are monitored by the secret services (not paranoia, they admitedly have been monitoring random phone lines for years).

As for Gmail, my gmails are read by nobody else but who they are destined to. Software scanning for keywords is in my book not violating my privacy.  My privacy is violated by way worse than that every single day by cameras and microphones here,there and everywhere.

I'm almost sure that this whole privacy thing against GMail was started by Microsoft to sabotage Google's reputation.  It's almost ridiculous how out of proportion this has been blown.

"big Brother is watching' is fine and dandy if it is considered necessary for national security....9/11 and similar excuses, but having a Commercial Entity snooping to target you for advertising is repulsive at best.

No-one appears to be bemused by the 'pyramid sales' methodology of promoting Gmail....the 'freebie' advocated by your 'mates' is worse than the spruiking of the Time Share marketeers.

If something 'appears' too good to be true it usually is.

This time, you are required to consent to a private individual's access to your 'private' communications for THEIR Commercial gain, not yours.

Once the 'foot is in the door' you will have a hard time arguing your legal right to privacy in other walks of life......the Lawyer's argument will go ...'you clearly are not 'that' concerned with data privacy as you have consented to its waiving with respect to Gmail, so it flows naturally to any other email accounts as well as they contain equivalent information and telecommunication privacy is already compromised through consent and 'required access' that no 'real' privacy SHOULD be expected.'

There is no difference to having your snail mail opened by 'Posties R Us.Org' and having a Flyer for Joe's Bar and Grill and Knocking Shop inserted because you mention in your letter you like Pizza and sex.

The concept of 'robot reading, not human reading' is laughable.

It is the Legal act of having it READ by a third party that dissolves your rights to subsequent controls.

Spying is a reality of life....long before 9/11....that is just a convenient excuse.  It can be mostly ignored as it is YOUR accepted Government of your own society and existence that is the prime source.....the price you pay for involvement /inclusion within your society.

I am not part of the Google monopoly/behemoth so I benefit not by the profiteering of the targetted advertising but only the sweetener given to the gullible....the chance to have some huge online storage...a GIG, whatever....the very same 'GIG' that they can peruse at their leisure and determine how to bombard you and your friends to whom you communicate with yet more barbed, specific advertising.

Join if you must....it's your individuality and person that is being violated.

Just do not expect everyone on the planet to even want to communicate with a compromised source and end up also feeding the Commercial coffers of Google.

If it wasn't such a clandestine attempt to invade and usurp your rights as an individual there would be no need to adopt the hysteria of peer distribution of accounts.  People would just say 'wow...great idea' and sign up individually.

Top marks to Google though.....inventing a whole new way of separating fools from their money through advertising.

Bloody brilliant.....

Jafo, what is the difference between a spam filter "reading" your mail or a "advertisement filter" as this could be called.

There IS a big difference between a software "reading" your mail or a humain.  It's like the difference between pulling your pants down in front of the TV or doing it in the subway...

So, what is it you don't like?  The fact that your emails are scanned the way a spam filter does, or the fact that you are served avertisement, as you already have just about everywhere on the web? Or somehow you don't have anything against either but you do with the combinasion of both?

Google is by far the most used search engine.  But it already serves "in your face" ads when you do a search on Google, yet people don't seem to mind that.

You may boycott GMail, but the sad truth for you is that you can't stop using email. You don't know where people you are emailing are reading your mail from... I know a few people (people from this site as a matter of fact) that forward all their email to their Google account. So you may be sending your emails to Gmail even if you don't know it.

I really think this whole thing is just too much. In French we have an expression, we say "making a storm in a glass of water", meaning blowing a small thing out of proportion.  There are way worse things on the Internet, the biggest one being spam. Heck I just changed my email account here for fun, and I swear not even 5 minutes later I already received 2 spam emails - I have this account for more than 1 month and had not yet received even a single one. I'm sure it's not Stardock's fault, there is probably a few robots somewhere who monitor this site for anything that looks like an email address.  To fight this plague, what can I do? No post my email anywhere?  But people need to be able to reach me if they need to, so there is really nothing I can do.  Compared to this, let me tell you this small GMail issue is the least of my worries.

Successful advertising requires 2 things.

The right product....and the right 'target'.

Privacy invasion assists in defining both of those to the point ultimately where success is assured. ['success' being measured by acceptable tyre-kicker rate vs actual sales].

You stand on a corner wanting to sell a tie pin.

No hope.

Stand on a corner with sign 'Tie Pin for sale'.

Better chance.

Follow everyone who has a tie and ask then to buy the tie pin....better still.

Get name and addy of every person ever to have bought a tie and you locate every potential tie-pin buyer.

Marketeer's heaven.