On 16 Jan 2006 18:58:24 -0800, Lena <lenagainster@gmail.com> wrote:
> tanstafl wrote:
>> On 11 Jan .. Lena wrote:
>> They DO have a DELETE button, don't they?
>> Indeed they do. And when you press it: POOF it's gone - from your
>> view :-( However, your mail is still on their backup servers...
>> The problem with a business practice is that it can be changed at any
>> time without notice .....
> Thank you very much for the warning and your long dissertation on the
> pitfalls of using gmail. I guess I better stop using gmail now before
> someone digs up some dirt on me.
> I guess I ought to stop buying things on the Internet, because, as so
> many have warned, someone could scoff up my credit card and start
> charging.
> I ought to stop online banking and billpaying before someone breaks
> into my bank account and steals all my money.
> I shouldn't even be ON the Internet, or someone could plant a virus in
> my computer and steal all my personal information that way.
> I shouldn't be using my credit cards out in public, because someone
> could steal my account numbers and my ID.
> I shouldn't even go out in public, because I could be the victim of a
> robbery, or get killed in an automobile accident.
> But if I stay in this house, the house could catch on fire and I'd get
> burned.
> There's no place to go. No place to hide. What should I do? I think
> the sky is falling in.
> Lena
Gee golly ... you've transitioned from sarcastic to absurd. When it
comes to valuing privacy, the world breaks into two groups -- them
that do and them that don't. I do. You don't. Have a nice life Lena.
Pete Gebel pfgebel(deletethis)@crisperiodcom
Have the best day possible - all things considered
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I can sort of see Lena's point; there
are risks in everything these days, and with the direction our government
is going, some of the risks are more severe than others, where
possible breaches of our privacy are concerned. But, Lena, there has
to be a cut off point; a spot at which we simply quit worrying about
it any longer. We attempt to rank the various risks we face, and
choose those we consider the most severe (for whatever reason) in our
own lives. Someone once said to me, "when I am looking for some good
comedy to read, I always choose RISKS Digest." His point was, I think,
that over the years, some of the worst-case scenarios presented there
are _so_ obscure, _so_ mathematically improbable as to hardly be worth
a second thought. I would not have used his exact phraseology or
choice of words, but many or most of the incidents described in RISKS
have happened to _someone_, who might as well be you or me, but
through God's grace have not been my problem or yours, still, they
could have been, and the more we press our luck or 'work the margins'
the more likely it will happen to us. I have a Google Mail account,
but do not use it, except rarely, and then only for the most bland of
conversations, for the very reasons Pete mentions, among others. Yet
here I sit with a quarter-century of Editor's Notes under my belt
stored away on more computers than just massis.lcs.mit.edu to be sure ...
I think most all long-time (like ten, fifteen or twenty or more year)
netters would die of mortification if every last word they had placed
on line since, oh, 1985-1990 or so suddenly popped up on everyone
else's screen. I am reminded of William (push the buttons, pull the
crank) Burroughs' novel many years ago, 'Naked Lunch', where as he
describes it, "everyone knows instantly what is on the fork of
everyone else." PAT]
tanstafl (me@mine.xxz.easynews.com)