gmail usage

[Steve Kinney]

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On 07/06/2016 08:05 AM, John Newman wrote:
> Do any gmail users (which I've noticed there a lot of on the list, 
> as well as in real life, heh) feel at all threatened by what
> Google is doing with access to your entire mail stream? They've
> publicly stated users have no "reasonable expectation of privacy".
> 
> 
> Do you use gmail for your main / private / important emails, in 
> addition to list correspondence?
> 
> Or do you consider the internet so pwned that it doesnt matter? 
> (although, why make it easier for them..)

"Obsessive avoidance of Internet surveillance does not take you off
the radar, it only takes you out of the game." - Me

When it comes to the "chilling effects" of State surveillance,
everybody who subscribes to CPunks is a member of a certain type of
Polar Bear Club.  Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.

I use GMail accounts as spam filters, i.e. destination addresses for
contact forms on websites, and as logins for G-Everything services
like Google Analytics.

Google Analytics does make it "easier" for Google's best friend, tech
support department and business partner NSA to keep track of who is
visiting the websites in question, but the trade-off in utility for
yrs. truly & clients more than justifies that.  Anybody who wants a
lower profile on the networks already blocks execution of javascript
except from whitelisted domains, and blocks calls from their browsers
to any URL with the string "analytics" in its URL.

I did register a domain name and hire a hosting service /just/ so I
could have real e-mail accounts, more or less under my own control.  I
did this for convenience, not any belief that it presents a barrier to
State surveillance.

On a related note, something truly horrible:  I have an active account
with NSA subsidiary The Facebook.  Initially I set it up to test
"social network integration" features when making websites:  You can't
market to the rubes in the cheap seats unless you can see the Internet
through their piggy little eyes.  Eventually I decided "what the hell"
and started pumping out propaganda there.  This led directly to
physical participation in the local activist & radical scene.

Given that my network traffic has been flagged for full take and
permanent retention by every U.S. intelligence service capable of same
since such capabilities first became available, I am sure that my
presence on The Facebook does more harm to them and their interests
than it does to me and my interests.  State surveillance at least
guarantees one an audience.

:o)




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