Re: OT: Frequency of SPAM

[Ian Petersen <iep@mail.dk>]

Mark,

 > How do you know? Is this a known fact?

Because that is the whole point of the Gmail business model: Google 
gives you a 'free' email account with online storage against you giving 
Google the right to scan your mail for keywords and present relevant 
text-ads to you in the Gmail interface. It's quite clearly explained in 
the terms and conditions you have to say yes to when you sign up for 
Gmail. There's nothing underhand going on.

Personally, I find the ads in Gmail quite useful since they are truly 
relevant to the things I am interested in. Obviously, if one is paranoid 
it is probably not a good idea to use any online storage service 
administered by a large multinational corporation - even one who claims 
to 'do no evil'. But I trust Google enough, for the time being, to use 
several of their online services.

Ian