What if someone has sent your name and address through a gmail account ?

It may have happened before, but quite recently someone sent me an email from a Gmail account, containing my name and address. Regardless of what Google claims to do or not to do, obviously I don't trust them.

Is there any way to mitigate the risk/damage ? What would you do ?

Real name and real address for Google, that's just too much.

 

I suppose that my question was not that bright, in the sense that nothing can be done ?

ronjor, I don't have a Google account. Also, I don't use Gmail. But that doesn't prevent other people from using Gmail to send me mail.

 

I don't think it's Google's fault. As ronjor said, there are many ways if someone just wants to get your real name and real address. This world is evil, we can't hide from everything.

Did they blackmail you? I hope not.

 

The problem was not that the individual in question had my real name and address, but rather that the data in question was sent from a Gmail account to my email address at my ISP.

I don't want Google to have that kind of information. I'm outside the USA, btw.

 

Still can't blame Google no matter what. They just provide a service. There's nothing you can do to prevent people from doing certain things, even if those things could possibly become threats.

 

I wonder why all the irrational focus on Google, when clearly all major (American) companies are virtually the same in privacy.

 

Indeed, Google and Microsoft are starting to look better than most

(But that's not saying much.)

 

because google has the huge database thanks to google adsense and google analytics being everywhere. who cares what the privacy policy of the minor players is when they don't have anywhere near the presence on the web that google has?

 

So you don't care about the invasion of privacy in itself as much as the biggest player. Makes one wonder where the hatred is truly directed.

 

There is nothing irrational here. The case described by Fly involved GMail, it would be pretty strange to talk about some other company...

 

Don't know what's a better word for blaming it on Google just for being used, instead of the perpetrator.

 

Irrational? No. This focus is actually rational.

1/ Fly was talking about Google so why not mention Google.
2/ Being virtually the same is not the point. We're just as likely to mention any major player about what ever they're doing or not doing, in this case about privacy.

You dont have to be smart to see that Google has got its mitts into just about EVERYTHING and it doesn't plan on stopping this overreach but wants to have a part in every facet of our online experience. When ONE company wants what they want, THAT is scary. THAT is holding too much power. Google should be divvied up into multiple company's instead of a huge big brother one stop shop spy machine.

The good things they offer come at a (hidden) price, and that price is becoming more costly. Remember they are fully capable of using smoke and mirror tactics plus LIES LIES and more LIES. When they say they want to be more transparent I would no more believe them than fly to the moon.

 

Personally I don't like Google's privacy collecting mechanisms, and I've taken steps to mitigate them significantly, but most important is to exercise caution with exposing your personally identifiable information. That should be far more of a concern than your general browsing habits being tabulated with everyone else's for marketing purposes and so forth.

 

google has the largest presence on the web. its like a website i saw the other day that said 60% of the web malware originates from russia, china and brazil. to solve the majority of malware problem just block those countries. apparently you would rather complain about Estonia, Ukraine and Egypt.

it seems like you defend google in every thread for some reason. are you on their payroll?

 

@Reality: Read the previous posts, and no you guys aren't just as likely. From my experience, Google is treated worse than NSA by some members here to this day.

@Snoop3: I block it all, or monitor it all. Anything else is hypocritical boycotting. Basically, I give everyone a chance, that's the open web.

I could say the exact opposite for so many of you. No rational bashing focuses only on Google, unless it's specifically their fault.

 

Seems to me, sure, folks were talking about google, but it was you who came in and upped the anti to "irrational bashing".

What kind of reasoning is that? So every time we mention the mighty Google we have to mention M$ Apple etc etc as if Google cant stand up to its own scrutiny?

Consider this. Five kids banded together but were caught stealing stuff from a supermarket, by your reasoning we would have them proportionately sharing the guilt instead of EACH being wholly guilty of theft. A thief is a thief and that fact is not determined by how much they stole, though the penalty might differ, but we're not talking penalties...yet. As for M$ Yahoo Apple et al, trust me they'll get their turn of scrutiny in due course if they haven't already.

Hypocritical boycotting ?

Please explain.

 

Just read them, cause you're repeating what I've already answered. Why not when everybody accepts this kind of irrationality?

Why should Google be equivalent of all major American companies? This whole thread wasn't even their fault to begin with. At worst they're an accessory to crime in this case.

You're not the only one thinking you've said it's same treatment, when clearly one of those thieves is treated worse than the others and set as an example. I'm the one treating them the equally, instead of proportional.

That is blocking one company instead of another doing pretty much the same thing just because it's bigger. Also blocking entire countries instead of USA that serves similar amounts of malware and now NSA.

Even before I was here, Google was being blamed instead of the actual criminals, how ridiculous is that?

 

Why make this a 'is Google bad ?' thread.

I'm not sure how to mitigate the 'issues' when someone uses a Gmail account to send me an email. Some people use Gmail, I just don't like it when personal information is sent using Gmail, to me.

While it is not Google's fault if someone uses their Gmail, they do have those nasty data grabbing practices. Data collection, sharing, product development etc. Whether some of their competitors do that or not is not the issue.
Google is one of the major players, if not the largest player in this game.

I can mitigate a lot, but what can I do when good people send me personal information though Google services ? Even if I can't do anything about it, I don't have to like it.

 

Does this thread have a topic ??

I guess the answer to my question is that I can't do much about it, if anything at all.

 

My ISP is relatively small. I'm fairly sure they don't collect my search history or every website I visit, nor do they sell my data. To the extent they have to because of data retention laws, so be it. I can't be my own ISP

I'm not fond of Microsoft either, now even less than a few years ago. At one time it seemed they had cleaned up their act, but more recent revelations have cast a different light on that. I wouldn't want to use Microsoft's email services either. M$ collects too many data and coorporates with the 'wrong' people.
A very big player too, indeed.

Email stealers ? I'm not familiar with that phrase. I can't worry about everything.

Government agencies ? They generally don't have any real search engines, and I think that most of the time they don't sell or give their data to corporations. Other than that, try to limit the information you give to government institutions. For a number of reasons.

The topic was 'Google', not the NSA, Facebook or the Chinese government.

 

Thanks ronjor.

I hope my posts don't look silly after the removal of several off topic posts.

 

@Fly

I wasn't talking about your ISP, I was talking about their ISP. Their, the people who sent you your name and address. You worry that Google might have/know your personally identifiable information, but those information might be already in danger far before Google sniffed it. Or perhaps if certain government agencies already hold the data by doing certain surveillance activities. It's not only Google who enjoys the cake.

Or perhaps if there's someone who intercepted the email, standing between you and the real one who sent you the email. Or maybe Microsoft already logged it when those people wrote that email by their so-called spying components in their OS, if there was any.

As long as it's not you who engage the communication, there's nothing you can do. Not to scare you or something, but your name and address might already been sold in the black market. And that doesn't require any involvements of Google, NSA, FBI, or Microsoft.

You can do that? I don't think so. Especially in real-life and you're tied by those institutions.