"Here is an article discussing how Google defends their scanning every email sent or received through Gmail. Google says this is a 'normal business practice', and uses the info to tailor ads that appear beside your inbox." Jim Hamm continues, "I use Gmail, and the adds don't bother me, but I'm not fond of the idea of Google scanning the contents of every email sent through their system. On the other hand, Google is providing a useful service for free, so something or someone has to foot the costs.

Jim goes on to comment, "Perhaps Google already states this in their terms of agreement when one sets up a Gmail account, but wording somewhat to the following seems fair to me: as a user of the free Gmail email service the user agrees to having all sent or received emails subject to scanning by Google. If one doesn't like this, then don't sign up for the Gmail service -- use something else for your email service.

So, this is Jim's question, "I don't know, but perhaps other free email services such as Yahoo, Outlook Express and others may do the same thing. What do you think about Google's scanning of your emails? Armed with this knowledge, surely you won't send any of your passwords via email anymore, will you...(grin)."