Maybe that's a little much.
But Gmail is too creepy really does raise more than a few concerns in my mind and, while I've got an account. I don't think I'll be using it all that much until these issues have been addressed.
The reasons?
Allow me to summarize.
1. Gmail is nearly immortal, its hard to delete messages and Google has already acknowledged that they don't really get deleted. And after 6 months, email messages are no longer protected communications and become just another db record which means a subpeona (and I used to serve subpeonas, they aren't hard to get) can crack open your private email account. And since the Patriot Act was passed, the six months may be negligible.
2. Google's policies don't apply. Their software will peek at your mail and store the info with your email address in their databases. And Google has never deleted any data they've collected. That's damned scary alone.
3. The potential for abuse is staggering. If a list of email addresses can be made by just entering filtering for keywords, like "dirty bomb" in the same email with "capitol" or "president". The implications are pretty frightening.
4. Bad and wrong ad matching. Ads for questionable pharmacies alongside an article about the dangers presented by those questionable pharmacies is just stupid. And it gets worse.
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