04-13-2007, 04:11 PM
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Executive Editor, Android Thoughts
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 3,233
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Google To Users: "Sorry About That, Chief!"
"We have been actively investigating a batch of accounts that were accidentally disabled and are currently in the process of re-enabling these accounts. This error occurred in an effort to target a large network of spammers to keep them out of the Gmail system and keep your inbox free from spam. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we re-enable these accounts as quickly as possible."
Google made a bit of a mistake a few weeks back, with some truly horrible horror stories resulting. If you ever needed a GOOD REASON to BACKUP anything important - let this be it. If mighty Google can nuke accounts by accident, it is just more proof that no admin group is above error.
Now stop reading this, take inventory of all the important data you have (i.e. files, emails, databases, pictures, movies, software, registration codes, passwords, etc..), and Back It Up!!!
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Dr. Jon Westfall, MCSE, MS-MVP
Executive Editor - Android Thoughts
News Editor - Windows Phone Thoughts
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04-13-2007, 06:50 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 484
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I don't use GMail, and I wish I had a way of preventing those that I send mail to from using it too. The fact that Google provides "free" storage of your messages in trade for reading all your mail in order to target ads to you is a huge breach of privacy in my book - and violates their famous slogan of "do no evil." :evil:
Of course, one could argue that I don't have to use GMail if I don't like them reading my mail. But the problem is that if I reply to someone who forwards their mail to GMail, I don't even know what messages of mine are being scanned.
Yes, I know, that as a general rule, you should never send truly private information via email, but it's hard to do business without at least a minimal level of trust in the privacy of email.
For example: I work for a small telecom company. If I send a potential customer information about our services, I really don't want my email thread with them tagged by Goggle to show my customer a targeted ad from AT&T for competing services based on keywords scanned in my (private) email to the client.
As for backups: one should never trust important documents to a single copy, be it local or on an online service like GMail.
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04-13-2007, 08:08 PM
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Contributing Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,389
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For this reason alone i cannot put my trust in a hosted exchange solution. I know you can back it up but i still do not want the main location of my personal, and very important data to be totally out of my control.
And people... please back up your stuff. :lol:
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04-13-2007, 08:20 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 484
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jason Lee
For this reason alone i cannot put my trust in a hosted exchange solution.
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While I don't use a hosted Exchange service (yet), I'm strongly considering it. While "stuff" happens even with hosted services, I generally think that they do a better job of maintaining backups and having redundant systems that a small office business (such as mine) does. Plus, I don't want to pay for a fixed IP address at home (yes, I know about dynamic DNS) nor have to keep a computer on 24/7 at home as a server - and assure that all my firewalls are secure and up to date!
While my current email server for is a hosted POP system, I'm about to switch it to Exchange in order to get the benefits WM 6.0.
Still, I agree 100% that you need backups of your own as well.
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04-13-2007, 08:23 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,043
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When I signed up with my website hosting service, in 2000, the owner cautioned that I should keep a full site file backup in case there was ever trouble at his end. He'd never lost a site, but users had accidentally deleted the files from the server themselves and called in a panic, hoping he'd backed up their files... As it turned out, the host's parent company Quik Internet went out of business late last year, without warning. I lost my site. The franchise operator quickly set up an account for me with a local outfit, and thanks to my backup files (on my PPC's SD card, though I keep copies on several different media besides) I was up and running again in a couple of days. A lesson I'd long since learned - backup, backup, backup! - had paid off.
There is this trend to host valuable information with online services. I know Google would like us all to adopt their web-based word processing and other services. And sure, I can see the value for some users. But leaving files there, and the only copy? That goes way beyond a security worry, and well into stupid territory. Servers crash. Software gets corrupted and makes mistakes. There is no such thing as a perfect program. If a person's email is at all important to them, it should not be entrusted to a single location, nor even to a single format, especially not a proprietary one such as Outlook uses. That's why I keep my mail locally, and back it up often. nPOPuk does the job marvelously well, with folders, built-in backup function, and most importantly storing all mail in a plaintext format. There's just no way I'd trust my personal and business communications to Hotmail, GMail, YahooMail (all of which I use, trivially, for group mail) or other web-based solutions. Basically, mail should be kept independent of someone else's staying in business, no matter how big they are. Mail using one's own domain ensures it'll keep working, no matter how many times one has to switch servers, and makes it dead easy to backup.
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Gerard Ivan Samija
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04-13-2007, 08:31 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 34
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For me I truly do not trust any e-mail to send/receive confidential information but I do use gmail.
Their service is fast and reliable.
I use them extensively and everything I send using them I wouldn't care if it was intercepted since I don't send important info through any e-mail.
Same holds true with cell phones. There are ways for someone or some entity to intercept your info.
The government not excluded.
Just be smart about what you send and what others are sending to you and you should be fine.
Also if someone sends something that I find questionable in terms of confidential info I delete.
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04-13-2007, 09:05 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 484
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by fresh-popcorn
For me I truly do not trust any e-mail to send/receive confidential information but I do use Gmail.
Their service is fast and reliable.
I use them extensively and everything I send using them I wouldn't care if it was intercepted since I don't send important info through any e-mail.
Same holds true with cell phones. There are ways for someone or some entity to intercept your info.
The government not excluded.
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As I noted, I agree 100% regarding confidential information. The trouble is that it's virtually impossible to conduct business in today's world without seeming paranoid if you don't use email and cell phones (or land lines for that matter) for "normal" business information. That means, I don't send my credit card numbers, or a patent pending design by email, but I will send information where the cost of not doing so out-ways the potential risks if the information is released.
My issue with GMail is not one of the risk that the mail will be read by someone that shouldn't have it, but the fact that Google is upfront about the fact that they WILL read private messages placed on their servers!
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04-13-2007, 09:59 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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I think this underscores one of the biggest hidden issues with online email services: how do you back up all your email? Short of forwarding them all to another email account, or saving them all as text files, you can't. It's ugly, and people don't realize it.
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04-13-2007, 10:15 PM
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Magi
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 2,341
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Problems like this could never happen to me. They always happen to someone else. 
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04-13-2007, 11:29 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 37
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by daS
I don't use GMail, and I wish I had a way of preventing those that I send mail to from using it too. The fact that Google provides "free" storage of your messages in trade for reading all your mail in order to target ads to you is a huge breach of privacy in my book - and violates their famous slogan of "do no evil."
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I don't think that there's a KGB-esque man in a small room reading all your e-mail. I assume that it's done automatically by computers. Their terms and conditions are clearly stated when you sign up and no-one is forcing people to sign up. Users seem willing to receive targeted ads in exchange for a fantastic and free e-mail experience.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
I think this underscores one of the biggest hidden issues with online email services: how do you back up all your email? Short of forwarding them all to another email account, or saving them all as text files, you can't. It's ugly, and people don't realize it.
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It's a good thing that GMail allows you to forward all (or some, based on user-defined rules) your e-mail to another account then, eh? 
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