Google's Undeletion Project

Interesting article, in particular the info about the UP. Conformation that NO personal etc data is deleted now, if it ever was ?

 

I guess that's expected IMO from a company such as Google.
I just hope they use it properly.
The only data i can think of that Google keeps from me is my Android Contacts (Android Phone) and my Google searches.

(I use iGoogle and just a few days ago i found out a way to check all my searches back from 2008 when i started using it LOL . . . To be honest i liked that because it brings back memories)

 

Odd this showed up today, because I have been online trying to understand the degree to which I can "undo" my google/gmail history.

I am not an IT person and am new to the privacy and security world. My learning curve is great, but I have read hundreds of posts on this site trying to learn.

So, bottom line. I think I could be involved by association in a ridiculous and shameful abuse of LE authority in investigating a friend of mine for something he didn't even do. I didn't do it either, but I don't want LE snooping in my gmail for my own privacy and because it contains a lot of confidential information relating to my business and clients.

my questions are:

If I delete my gmail account today, I understand in "short time" it will possibly be backed up on gmails servers, but not indexed in a way that it is readily available. I have read that it will cost money, possibly a lot of money, for gmail to research the data and provide it "if it is available". My sense from everything I read that its available somewhere; I am just trying to determine whether spending time deleting is worth anything at all.

is there a way to back up certain email so that they can be imported to a new, more secure email? Is there some way that backing up and importing could create additional privacy issues for me?

Thanks so much.

 

Hello, lovelymaiden,

From your concerns, it would seem that it's worth the time.

Yours is a good example of why I've continued to use a local ISP and a POP3 email reader,
where I have the choice whether or not to leave messages on the server:



Also, my ISP (for 15+ years) does not keep copies of users' emails or search histories.

regards from

(not a fan of the cloud) rich

 

If Gmail works with IMAP clients, you could see everything that way. If you just move it to local folders, it's effectively deleted from the mail server.

So, does Gmail work with IMAP clients? I don't use Gmail, so I can't check.

 

that's what I use to backup gmail:

http://www.mailstore.com/en/mailstore-home.aspx

 

@lovelymaiden

That's your solution, perhaps. MailStore Home (free) claims to work with:

# Internet mailboxes such as Gmail or Yahoo! Mail
# Any POP3 and IMAP mailboxes

A regular client like Thunderbird might also work with Gmail. But you would need to experiment.

 

Thanks for the input. I am still making my way through terms. So are you saying that if I have my gmail sent to another provider, such as the ones recommended, that it would then be deleted from the gmail server?

Sorry to be do dense, don't know what POP3 and IMAP even mean.

 

I don't think that MailStore Home is just an online service. As I read their website, it's software that you install on your computer. It downloads all of your email from whatever email accounts you tell it to, such as Gmail. POP3 and IMAP are protocols that email client software on your computer can use in communicating with mail servers.

 

The question I would have if using a web email service is, Does the service such as Gmail keep backup copies of all users' accounts? If so, even if a user downloads from her account, the emails would still be in storage on the Gmail server somewhere.

----
rich

 

True. But this is what Google claims, via the Atlantic article posted by the OP:

But what about XYZ's backups?