[PLUG-TALK] Google asserts you have no expectation of privacy in your email

[Paul Heinlein]

Functionally, I agree with Google here.

To push the postal metaphor a bit further, I'd say that using a 
service like gmail or Yahoo is like sending all your correspondence on 
postcards. It's unlikely that postal employees would be interested 
in what you have to say, but there's no real obstacle to them reading 
it.

If you want to put e-mail into a security envelope, use S/MIME or PGP 
for your messages. That's true regardless of where the messages are 
stored. Plain-text e-mail messages might as well be postcards to every 
router through which they pass.

My disagreement with Google comes at the policy level ("you trust us 
with your messages; of course, we might read them"), but my opinion 
means nothing to big data corporations.

-- 
Paul Heinlein
heinlein at madboa.com
45°38' N, 122°6' W