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[Enough!Participant @enough]

Thanks, Jason – that might explain why I didn't get any ads when I tried what you did.

A while ago, I took the trouble to go through all the multiple Gmail configuration dialogues and turn off anything that was intrusive and didn't relate to the most basic tasks of sending and receiving mail. (It took nearly forever at the time – the convolutions are endless).

I just rechecked and, although Google obfuscates the wording, it seems I have the ads turned off.

[dcostaParticipant @dcosta]

Hello all,

I received from Firefox a message with this banner: "Keep Facebook off your trail".

For those concerned with abuse of the privacy of their data.
Firefox offers an extension that allows you to avoid spying in the context of their browser.
***HERE***
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/facebook-container/?src=external-email-facebookcontainer&utm_source=2020fxnews-en&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=feb2020&utm_content=fbcontainer-en

greetings from
Dias Costa

 

Edited By dcosta on 10/03/2020 17:33:19

[An OtherParticipant @another21905]

About a year ago I had a problem with my computer, which eventually led to me re-installing LinuxMint. Users will know that using the Linux Thunderbird email client can be a bit tricky unless you know the dodges – a new installation will lose all the previous emails, and your contacts etc. The trick is to copy the (normally hidden) default folder over from the old installation to the new installation, along with the older .ini files (or you can edit them) – I have done this successfully many times for new installations of Linux on various machines, or after software mishaps – you can also do this with Firefox – it saves having to go through complete setups after re-installation, and avoids losing emails you want to keep.

I have several email accounts, including a Googlemail account, all running under Thunderbird, so I copied over the files into Tbird, and all seemed OK – I could read the emails in Thunderbird.

Then I realised that some Googlemail e-mails were 'empty' – they appeared to exist, but had no text in them. In Thunderbird I had opted to save my emails on my computer, but I know that the original mails also remained on Googles server, so I opened my Gmail account directly so I could forward the missing emails to Thunderbird. I had done this procedure several times, and on other occasions only found relatively recent emails in Google – which I usually forward then delete – my Google mailbox is usually almost empty, because I hate leaving stuff in it. (I also empty the mail 'bin&#39.

Imagine my horror when I found EVERY email I had ever written or received in the Gmail account for many years – literally thousands of them – including ones I had deleted (directly) over the years from the Google account. (I am quite rigorous about this – all 'old', unwanted, unsolicited mails get deleted, I thought permanently – from the account – not in Thunderbird, but in Googlemail).

I immediately deleted the lot (I hope), but I have never received any explanation from Google, and since then, I have not seen the same phenomenon again – but I won't use my Googlemail account again – I don't trust anything they say or do – I don't really care what they claim they do in the interests of security, I simply do not believe them.

I think the moral is that even when you don't think your data is being copied, read and used – IT IS, all the time. Probably better to be paranoid than hacked and robbed, or your data stolen.

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

An Other – I thought this behaviour of Google was well known – basically it reads everything that passes thru it – what is doubly annoying for me is that anything I write to a gmail user merely adds to my profile.

Don’t forget that Android is basically a spy in your pocket

Edited By Frances IoM on 10/03/2020 21:20:59

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Funny – the Internet seemed like a good idea at the time ….

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

It still is – the catch is that the marketers, advertisers + crooks took over (mostly american with their antipathy to any concept of social responsibility) – the early days the net when basically an academic network were good.

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by Frances IoM on 11/03/2020 17:20:33:
It still is – the catch is that the marketers, advertisers + crooks took over (mostly american with their antipathy to any concept of social responsibility)

…. or what I like to call "Totalitarianist Capitalism".

[Author]

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