I am an fan of Google, say what you will.
However, I have been reading the chatter about how Google’s Gmail is using data mining techniques to target web advertisements of their users.
I was curious just how true and to what extent this was happening, so I got myself a Gmail account. After a few random messages had been typed and sent out the boarders surrounding my email messages were advertisements for what ever the topic of discussion in my email messages was that day. Say, if I was planning baseball practice for my boys’ baseball team the ads would say, “Buy discount batting supplies!”
I was amazed that they were actually filtering out the content of my messages and extrapolating the data. They must in turn be selling that info to companies that advertise thru Google.
Well, I did check the box that agreed to the terms of using Gmail but does that mean that every message I send should be subject to advertising scrutiny? Sure, its not like some guy is sitting behind a monitor in a dimly lit room looking at all of my email message content but it does put into prospective the line between what is truly ?yours? and ?theirs?. My email is my private conversations. Not an advertising mechanism. Or, so it was?