Gmail Google webmail privacy nsa

Here’s a report from The Guardian. Yep, it’s that same UK online news site that’s been making headlines for more than a month.

The report cites a court filing by Google in which the Internet giant revealed that Gmail users should have no expectation of privacy. None. The thing does not exist.

In the court filing, Google makes the claim that:

Just as a sender of a letter to a business colleague cannot be surprised that the recipient’s assistant opens the letter, people who use web-based email today cannot be surprised if their communications are processed by the recipient’s ECS [electronic communications service] provider in the course of delivery.

Ok, I thought a mail server or service is just supposed to deliver email, not read it. Or as Google puts it, process it. In any case, this should not be news to anybody. However, for those that didn’t know already, here’s breaking news – engrave it on your spleen: If you use Gmail, forget about privacy. Google says you should have known that right from the beginning. And if there’s no privacy with Gmail, good luck with that email service from Microsoft, Yahoo! mail and all the others.