It seems everyone is moving towards the email paradigm of Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Windows Live Mail (formerly Hotmail) and the like. Here’s something most people don’t realize and I think it’s important for you to understand exactly what it means.
NOTHING IS FREE. Why do these companies give out free email services? The real answer is data mining.
We have all sent private emails containing information you definitely do not want to divulge to the public.
There’s only one problem. You’re trading your privacy for it. Here’s an example.
1. Joe or Jane uses any of the big free email providers (gmail, yahoomail, windows live mail, hotmail).
2. Every time they receive an email or send one, not only are you compromising the security of your privacy, but the privacy of whoever you are sending the email to.
Your email is mined for keywords, phrases, etc. This information is used to Market Products and Goods to you and your recipient.
They keep track of who you are, what you’re writing about, etc. They use this information and some very complex algorithms to figure out what you might be interested in buying.
If you have a medical condition, let’s say it’s cancer and you don’t want people to know. The last thing you need popping up on your facebook page is information about cancer and treatments.
If you’re thinking about a divorce, the last thing you want to do is to have your spouse get Divorce ads on his or her facebook page and especially in their google searches.
Get it? It’s VERY dangerous. In the era of “connecting” accounts where you can connect your facebook, google, twitter, etc. accounts, you’re basically building a public profile for the world to see.
This resides on EVERY computer you’ve ever accessed your email on. So if you want to know something about someone just have them google anything. Just look at the Ads that pop up and you’ll know what it is they’re thinking or talking about to other people.
It’s a dangerous road. Be careful.
What about email providers? Who would you choose then? Here’s the answer. Pick a provider that you pay for. Don’t use a big name provider like Godaddy or anyone like that. They probably harvest your emails too.
Pick a small provider or build your own email server. If you couldn’t be bothered, contact me and I’ll host your email for $2.00 per month. I won’t impose a hard limit on quotas and you’ll be safe. I do provide a web interface, but I will not be mining or reading your email. (Personally, I have better things to do).
There’s always been a reason I don’t use these services, but when I do, I use them sparingly. I definitely don’t write about things that are private to me on them.
Here’s another test you can do. Have someone send you an email on shoes or something like that. When you check your email and also when you conduct your web searches or browse the web, you’re going to start to see ads for shoes. Do you think this was by accident? No.
Also, be careful about what you post on facebook as well. It’s information mined as well. Remember, information can be sold or utilized in such a way that it can be VERY expensive to you and those that you contact.
If I knew that you liked shoes, I could sell that information to shoe sellers. You know what’d they pay? tens of thousands of dollars.
In other words, be careful.
If you want email and domain hosting, let me know. I can do it and you can be guaranteed to be safe.
Just contact me if you’re interested.