Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
Google takes email privacy very seriously. Only last week they fired an
employee for snooping through someone else's email.
http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/14/google-engineer-spying-fired/
That's good to know. On the other hand, Google keeps information forever.
Ownership, management, policies, and practices change.
And to be frank, the fact that some of Google's employees are not authorized to
look at emails means that others are. And those others are subject to the usual
human weaknesses of bribery, blackmail, temptation, voyeurism, etc. Heck, the
White House is famous for being a leaky organization, despite extensive security.
I rent storage on Amazon's servers, but the stuff I send there is encrypted
before Amazon ever sees it. I don't have to depend at all on Amazon having a
privacy policy or airtight security.
Google could implement their Calendar, etc., stuff the same way. I'd even pay
for it (like I pay Amazon).