[Chickensoup]

meanwhile, google pilfers every event on your machine including your emails and puts it all into a statistical magic box and sells it to marketers as the keys to your soul and wallet.

Can they really do this?

[dayglored]

>> meanwhile, google pilfers every event on your machine including your emails and puts it all into a statistical magic box and sells it to marketers as the keys to your soul and wallet.

> Can they really do this?

Only if you ask them to. Stay away from Google Mail and Google Desktop.

Caveat emptor. Don't sign up for something unless you know what it is and what it does.

[the invisib1e hand]

Can they really do this?

Try this experiment:
Open a gmail account.
Send and receive some emails.
Notice the keyword ads that start appearing.

Then, you decide.

The hurdles to extensive data harvesting would be merely technological: there are no moral bounds.