My data on my system

Nathan Weinberg reports about another reason to avoid giving Gmail – and, as far as I’m concerned, any third parties – control over your own information:

Darknest sends word that his Gmail account has been terminated by Google because of suspicious files stored in his account. According to the user, he admits to having a few cracks and key generators on his account but is unsure how Google found out about it.

Darkrest suspects that the Google bot which searches for certain key words for advertisers is doing more than just searching advertisement phrases; he claims that the bot is also searching for words that are associated with illegal files, such as key generators and cracks. “I was never told why my account was cancelled, once I logged into my Gmail account I noticed that my files were missing…two days later, my account was terminated. This sux man!” The user doesn’t deny having illegal files stored on his PC, however states that Google has no business looking at his emails.

For the record, I still don’t believe Google are being particularly evil here. They still did not do anything out of the ordinary in terms of the technical process of mail delivery. Any other webmail service might do the same, and it’s probably well within their rights. That’s just another reason I’m never going to use one – not Gmail, and not any other either.

Referenced in When you want something done right.