California legislator moves to block Gmail

[Spinner]

A California state senator said Monday she was drafting legislation to block Google's free e-mail service "Gmail" because it would place advertising in personal messages after searching them for key words.

"We think it's an absolute invasion of privacy. It's like having a massive billboard in the middle of your home," said Sen. Liz Figueroa, a Democrat from Fremont, Calif.

"We are asking them to rethink the whole product," she said.
Submitted by KingFish

Source: News.com (http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5190219.html?tag=nefd.top)

[FormFactor]

Complete waste of taxpayer dollars.

[KingFish]

Complete waste of taxpayer dollars.

Yup, I think the marketplace should make that decision since there are plenty of alternatives to choose from. This shouldn't be in the realm of legislation, but that's simply an opinion.

KingFish

[pseudonym]

GO GOVERNMENT!!! You keep doing things that are, ummmm, useful??:confused:

[Lincoln]

Oh man, score one for hyperactive legislators that don't understand technology. Only reason I can think of to block Gmail is being on the payroll of M$ or Yahoo.

[Thrax]

Fantastic. An autonomous program attaching a contextual advertisement allows unscrupulous people to... Not have more control over an email service than they already do!

Heaven forbid a contextual advert be placed as a footer rather than a generic. Certainly that will allow them to search emails as any provider already may!

[Camman]

omg check this out, I solved this whole privacy problem without any courts or anything.

If you think it's an invasion of privacy.....don't use the service.

Now someone give me lots of money.

[Lincoln]

If you think it's an invasion of privacy.....don't use the service.
Precisely. The good senator should give you her salary for the time she wasted on that nonsense to you. People took the Patriot Act lying down but are having a fit about a friggin' e-mail service run by innocuous software?? I think the privacy groups have just been starved for an issue lately.

[topherice]

What's up with all the ************ in these posts? Only visible when viewed from the read more link on the S-M home page.

[Thrax]

We think i****'s an absolute invasion of privacy. I****'s like having a massive billboard in the middle of your home," said Sen. Liz ******igueroa, a Democra**** ******rom ******remon****, Calif.

"We are asking them to rethink the whole produc****," ****e said.

[Lincoln]

;D oh my, I think the swear filter didn't like something I added... I'll go sort that now...

//edit: fixt :p

[Unregistered]

Let the people decide for themselves.

[Enverex]

I highly doubt any of the information is stored, and the page is generated on the fly, so it isn't invading anyones privacy. Thats like saying something that formats the page is invading your privacy as it needs to read the output of the page before writing it back out.

[EyesOnly]

:rant:

[TheBaron]

wait ... its FREE, so we're paying to get rid of it?

[Dexter]

Ya, 3 words here Madam Senator...:

free e-mail service

If people don't want the ads, they are welcome to not use the service.

Dexter...