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I use gmail as one of my main email accounts, but have just been notified of new terms and conditions which seem to mean that they will be authorised to pry even more than they do already into my messages?

I am not sure that I really understand the full implications, and at a time when I am increasingly paranoid about the various new laws being proposed to regulate our freedom on he Internet I would like to hear what other gmail users think, if there are others on the Forum

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I am thinking of changing from gmail. Have been for a while as I have trouble reading my mails, as I haven't got google chrome, which they say I need and don't think I want it.

Privacy, I wasn't sure that we ever had it, did we?

 

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[quote user="idun"]

I am thinking of changing from gmail. Have been for a while as I have trouble reading my mails, as I haven't got google chrome, which they say I need and don't think I want it.

Privacy, I wasn't sure that we ever had it, did we?

[/quote]

Beat me too it thats what I would do.

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Norman...at the base of this blog it explains how to opt out of some but not all....... (oop's I use chrome so cant post proper link , just copy and paste link).

I have 5 gmail accounts business and pleasure so like you I am concerned of the implications.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/248715/googles_new_privacy_policy_why_you_should_care.html
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Norman, looking at what they have about you, it is not so bad as you seem to say; There is nothing about your dark past, the prison years, the flight to France, the arrests, hours in police detention etc. [6]

In fact I suspect that the French security services know a heck of a lot more about you than Facebook

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I use gmail as it is easy to access from wherever, whenever. It works on IE on a new Tosh but Di suspects that you may need Chrome if yr puter is getting on a bit.

Google reading my e-mails does not bother me, there is nothing in them of interest to most.

For those of you of a paranoid persuasion I suggest that you abandon the modern fashion of disclosing all at every possible opportunity and remember the old slogan "loose lips drop you in the ****".

John

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From what understand, Google will use whatever info it has gathered whilst I am using Gmail, Reader, Search, YouTube, Calendar, etc... to build a "super-profile", which it says will help narrow down search results and ads to whatever it is I have expressed interest in previously.

As far as Google ads are concerned, as I use AdBlock to stop them appearing on the pages I view (even on this forum), so I really don't care that they're "personalized" as I never see them.

As far as my "Google super-profile" is concerned, I guess I'll have to start using Dogpile and Bing more.

On another Google-related matter:

I have downloaded THIS ADD-ON for Firefox (source HERE) in a bid to foil Google's recent bias towards showing its own products in its search results (article HERE).

The add-on also exists for Chrome (HERE)

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[quote user="milkeybar kid"]Claire, if you use google without signing in (because of google account with having g mail) then am I right in thinking Google cant influence your search criterias. It is only if you are signed in that google can start dictating.

Yes....No?[/quote]

Yes, that's how I understand it, but I am usually logged in to access my Gmail or Reader accounts through the day and I would have to remember to log in and out every time I check, which is unlikely to happen.

As I see it, the mere fact of checking my email or accessing my Reader or YouTube subscriptions will be used, as well as any search I may make whilst logged in. As I have no plans (yet) to move my email account or lose my Reader subscriptions, the only way I see for now to limit Google's plans for my "super-profile" is to do my searching elsewhere.

I have no social media profile, so that's a positive I suppose!

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[quote user="halfblind"]Clair, I suggest you change your search engine to duckduckgo - they dont track you.[/quote]

Excellent tip! Thank you.

https://duckduckgo.com/

The whole idea that Google filters results to suit your so-called "super-profile" is just too weird for words. It's a self-building circular argument:

You look at a movie site, later you search for news about a film adaptation and look at a film trailer on Reader or youTube, and as a result, when your next search is for info on the Sahara, Google shows you results which are is movie-skewed because that's where it thinks your interest resides, based on your Google behaviour.

Yes it's a simplified explanation, but isn't this what they're talking about?

I don't want Google to filter what I'm looking at.

It's not about what is shown, but about what is NOT being shown.

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