[Reader-list] Re: Agent Gmail

[Captain Typo]

Value of @gmail.com accounts is going down south as far as brand
value/hipness value is concerned.
Following is small factoid on gmail:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Google initially invited about 1,000 employees, friends and family members to
become beta testers. The trials began on March 21, 2004. Since then, others
have been randomly selected to test the service. On April 25, active users from
the Blogger.com community were offered the chance to participate in the
beta-testing. Since then, active members have periodically received "invites"
which they can extend to their friends. One round was sent out on May 1, and
another three invitations were given to all active members on June 1; in
mid-June, the number of invitations has been increasing, with some users
receiving between three and five invites daily.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  

The larger is issue is rather regarding privacy. Google does'nt delete any
mails, even if user intends to.
The privacy page of gmail, is a interesting read. The mails are being watched
for ad-positioning.

Mail Content by itself is a great data for analysis of social heirarchies, but
the added information need for sending and recieving mails reveal geographic
location, time zones etc etc.

If collected over period of time reveals social behaviour, associations/type of
association with organization/events/people.

In case of gmail users, there is still a explicit agreement between the user of
gmail and google. But there is no legal binding regarding mail sent  to people
using gmail, which all of us inevitably will do.


So just wondering what to do with the account and the invites that I have!

Captain