ARTICLES FOR WEBMASTERS 
 Is Google Spying On You?
by Aaron Turpen of Aaronz WebWorkz
Is Google reading your email? I guess that depends on who you think
Google is, actually. If you think of Google as some vast corporation
with lots of employees, then no, they aren't reading your email. If you
think of Google as a large network of Internet servers and computer
hardware, then yes, they're reading your email.
Let me explain
If you subscribe or have considered subscribing to Google's GMail,
then you've no doubt heard the hype about their
"privacy-invading" techniques to serve you advertising as you read email.
It's a lot of hooey
I have a GMail account and have nothing bad to say about it. I have
several websites which use Google's SiteSearch, Google's AdSense, and
other Google tools to serve advertising and garner revenue. Those ads
that you see on the right hand side of the page when you search for
something on Google are paid advertisements (the ones labeled
"Sponsored Links"). Every time someone clicks on one of those ads while
on my site, I get a few cents as payment for displaying the ad.
The ads in GMail look exactly like that and are about as intrusive to
your email tasks as they are on that search page…meaning they aren't.
I have, in the past, had Hotmail, Yahoo!, and other free email accounts
online. Without exception, those popped up annoying ads, showed banners
somewhere on the screen, or sent me in-house-created email
advertisements. That's how they pay for the service. GMail is no
different.
Except they're scanning your incoming emails for keywords in order to
target those ads to your subjects of interest. Just like they scan my
website for keywords in order to rank me on the search engine and to
display ads relevant to what's on my site.
I think that privacy advocates are wasting their time fighting Google
here. I don't see anything wrong with GMail - especially since Google
is being and always has been very up-front about what they're doing.
Just check out the main page for GMail: there's a link directly to
"privacy concerns" where they spell it all out.
I'm much more incensed with companies that will sell out your
information and privacy just to make a buck or two. Furthermore, if you
don't like the idea of Google's computers scanning your email in order
to serve up ads, then don't sign up for a GMail account. See? You have
a choice. Ain't America great?
Author's Bylines
Aaron Turpen is the proprietor of Aaronz WebWorkz, a web services
company providing consultation, development, and more to small
businesses online. Aaron publishes several newsletters regularly and is
the author of many ebooks, including "The Layman's Guide to Doing
Business Online" and "The eBay PowerSeller's Book of Knowledge." Visit
him online
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