Big bother

[topogigo]

When i receive email on my googlemail adress, there are adverts down one side that pertain to words in my messages. I know the mail is a freebee, but i sort of object to even a search engine reading it without being told that it would do so when i set up the adress!

[Aquariel]

That is one of the features of Googlemail - that they target you with ads based on your email contents.

I don't have G-mail myself, but I'm sure their terms and conditions would have mentioned something about this as it has been discussed extensively over the last year or so!

This website uses the same system for the ads you see on the right of the page.

[fo3nix]

You were told that this would happen, and you agreed to it. You just didn't read what it said, as the above says.

Anyway, it's no reason to worry. All web-based email systems scan your email. It's all electronic, with nothing stored for future. Google just uses that information as they scan your messages to send keywords to their advert system.

Which would you prefer: adverts about dating agencies or other random things, or adverts for services and shops you might actually be interested in?

[Buenchico]

This might be of interest to you:
http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/GmailLetter.ht m

For an alternative free e-mail service (which, in my opinion, is much better than GMail), use Gawab. Read paragraph 3 onwards in my post here:
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Technology/Inte rnet/Question407429.html

Chris