mathguy - 5:22 pm on Apr 13, 2004 (gmt 0)

I have to agree with ThatAdamGuy in saying that this women really doesn't have a clue. According to the reuters newswire she objected to Gmail because "it would place advertising in personal messages after searching them for key words". Given the screenshots that we have seen it would seem to me that this women really should perhaps actually talk with some of the people that have actually used the service. She would probably change her tune once she became better informed. Liz Figueroa seems to be like most politicians that really don't take the time to understand more technical issues and frequently make blunders like this. This proposal looks a politician who is looking for some boogy man they can claim they fought against for some future campaign.

It would surprise me if most free email providers don't keep at least some personal information. Most of these companies aren't providing free email at the goodness of their heart. Giving some information about yourself is part of the bargain.

I couldn't myself using there service because I am not a big fan of free email. That said I don't think that lawmakers should be preventing other people from using Gmail provided that they are upfront with their customers about their privacy practices. This sounds better than most free email since Google isn't attaching adds to your outgoing emails. That has to be more annoying that anything that has been proposed with Gmail.