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And a link explaining it... [mail.google.com...]
Google is to integrate its popular e-mail service with instant messaging, allowing users to chat and send e-mails from the same web browser window.
The company hopes the new feature, known as Gmail Chat, will attract users by offering instant messaging without having to use a separate program.
Goodness...does the internet need to archive everything!
Exactly - Do you really want Google (or anyone else) to have your private conversations on file for as long as they feel like keeping them?
sure you do--until you find out that Google has every conversation you ever had stored for life. If I want to save something, I will do it myself, no need for google do so. Needless to say I don't trust Google when it comes to privacy at all. I don't think that "delete" means delete for them; it just means "keep it, but don't show it anymore."
"We know that sometimes, you don't want a particular chat, or chats with a specific person, to be saved. Most existing IM services give no indication of whether the person you're chatting with is saving your conversation. But when chatting in Gmail or Google Talk, you can go "off the record," so that nothing typed from that point forward gets saved in anyone's Gmail account.
Going off the record applies to individual people, and is persistent across chats. That means once you go off the record with a particular person, you will always be off the record with him or her, even if you close the chat window, and the two of you don't chat again until several months later. You will not need to go off the record each time you chat with the same person, but you will need to make this decision for each person you chat with. We've designed this to be a socially-negotiated setting because we want to give users full disclosure and control over whether the person they're talking to can save their chat. Learn more"
[mail.google.com...]
No. That's not the point I'm trying to make. The point I'm making is that with or without Google archiving chats, emails, or even searches - your privacy is relatively obsolete on the 'net. There are so many tools out there that can help anyone find out nearly anything about someone. Phone reverse lookups, file type hacks, etc.
So Google is archiving your IMs. If you don't want them to have it, then don't use the service. I think it's simple. If there are enough people believe that the service can put your privacy in danger, then there won't be as many people using it. Soon, no one will use it. When there's no demand, the product will go away.
You can decide right at the outset to save chats in your Gmail account, but this can also be turned on or off in "Settings." And when you're chatting, use "Options" to go "off the record."
