Gmail users - off topic

[Dave Mason]

Sy Ali asks:

> But shouldn't everyone be using Gmail?  *hides*

The answer is: not as long as it's a US company and the US Patriot Act
is in place.

All your email is kept forever on gmail's servers (likely even after you
"delete" it) and hence is accessible to US law enforcement with minimal
oversight and gmail is forbidden to even tell you if they are asked to
provide information on you to an agency.  That won't likely happen out
of the blue... but if someone on a mailing list receives email from you
and they become a suspect (for good *or* flimsy reasons), you may appear
on their radar.

As President of a Faculty Association, I hear about many cases of abuses
of freedoms, including people permanently banned from the US for slight
or no reasons.  (For academics, being banned from the US can have career
implications as they may not be able to attend many appropriate
conferences.)

Of course this applies just as much to Yahoo, MSN, etc.

../Dave
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