Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler OT Gmail

I agree with you that if a clause is written in whereby people can read it, that is an invasion of privacy. And I agree with you about things always inching further and further along into our privacy. I just don't think that in this particular case it's as significant as it has been made out to be. And also, the targetted ads are not in the form of junk email, they show up to the right of the email text, exactly like the targeted ads show up when you search on google. You barely notice them unless you want to read them.

I'll admit, when I first got an invite I did some homework on this because I was pretty concerned from all I'd heard too. That's the only reason I'm not so worried about it anymore.

Then again I use my supermarket/CVS discount cards without a care, even though I know they use them to track my purchases and give me targeted coupons at the checkout. So, maybe I am just generally less concerned about these things than some people.

hey Zarack that's quite a slippery slope your cruising down

A lot of it is just fear and paranoia. "Oh no my computer is going to be broken into!" That's why some shy away from webmail or wireless, but really, I can break into your house with a hammer and look in your filing cabinet when you're not home, yet you seem perfectly safe putting all your stuff there.

There's always risks involved, and the best defense isn't software, it isn't hardware, it's that brain up in your head. Common sense is one of the greatest gifts you have. My family, friends, people I lecture too, etc, are always asking my "why don't you have tons of spyware and viruses on your computer?"... Well yes I use anti-virus software, but I don't use internet security, or crank up all my Internet Explorer settings to restricted or high... it's common sense, with a bit of email filtering and saying NO to random dialog boxes, you can feel better about yourself.

I use wireless internet with my tabletpc, and have it encrypted, and I change the password now and then... but what it all boils down to is your fear and paranoia. I'm not afraid of the internet or its users, I'm happy and comfortable surfing the web, and that only can make it a very positive experience. If you've got young kids in the house, surf the net with them, show them the cool stuff indeed of them having to go find it themselves and accidentally clicking on something they shouldn't.

It's never the computers fault, it only does what the user tells it to.

My .02.

- D

P.S. As for Gmail, I have a gmail account , do I use it? Not really as I have POP/SMTP secure accounts on three servers, and I <3 Outlook 2003

Daphoid,

Excellent post...and I concur 100%.

I manage IT for a small company, and we recently had a virus/worm scare, first one in my five years with the company.

After I sent out a scathing email to the whole company about the use of "private" computers on the companies network and how it will no longer be tolerated with out my consent, I found out how many people do not use virus protection at home.

I can understand a bit on why people do not update their Microsoft OSes with the provided patches, but no virus protection....I think that is negligence.

At home, I use Norton/Symantec antivirus and Spybot. Spybot, being free, is a no brainer and works well.