Gmail’s TOS is Freaky & Unfriendly
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Yeah well I was just going through Gmail’s TOS and I found something fishy. Something not so friendly. Something that freaked me out.
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This licence is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.
11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.
11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions.
11.4 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license.
I’m not a lawyer, but what I understood after reading this a few times is that you basically give Google the permission to mess with your emails. They can do whatever they want. No privacy! I don’t know what else to say. I feel like Google’s little bitch.
I knew that Google had a lot of privacy issues, but woah… this is like taking it to the next level. I’m a bit shocked to be honest. I never thought they would have this in their TOS. Smart corporate bastards! Now we can’t take any legal actions. They’ll just say that we agreed to it.
This reminds me of the rumours about Google thinking of displaying people’s emails in their search results because they thought it could help other people (for some weird reason). I hope Google doesn’t do that. But, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did it.
The thing that I pointed out in Gmail’s TOS was the same issue with Google Chrome’s TOS. There was a lot of complaining and warnings about it. People were fucking pissed. They wouldn’t even download Chrome because of that. Google came out and told us that it was a mistake. I’ll just quote what Gizmodo said, “Google knew it was in there and hoped it would slide.”
And you know what? The TOS for Gmail is actually the TOS for Google. They use the same thing for all their shit. So, doesn’t that mean we’re completely fucked? They just know way too much stuff about us and now they can do whatever they want with those info. Kinda creepy since Google isn’t as innocent as it pretends to be.
Well I don’t know what you guys are thinking, but I’ll stop using Gmail. Well actually I don’t really use Gmail anymore. I just use it to chat with a few people who doesn’t use Live Messenger (aka MSN). But, I would really appreciate if you shared how you feel about this and what you’ll be doing.
11 September 2008 at 5:05 pm
I don’t mind, I don’t have anything to hide…
Maybe this is why Google is one of the number one free service provider for almost everything!
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11 September 2008 at 5:46 pm
@Dan: I don’t have anything to hide either. But still what about our privacy? You can’t just do whatever you want just because you offer something for free.
“Maybe this is why Google is one of the number one free service provider for almost everything!” That doesn’t seem to make sense. They’re number one because people like to be stalked??
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11 September 2008 at 9:33 pm
Lol, I totally messed that up, I was rushing … What I had in my mind, didn’t come out right.
Google is one of the top 3 free service providers for many things, if not number one. Why change what’s working for them? How else can get analyze our data, usage, etc to improve their service?
What about your internet company? Do you think they do not monitor your downloads, bandwidth, other internet usagE?
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11 September 2008 at 10:59 pm
@Dan: Yeah Google’s pretty much the leading free service provider. Well they don’t need the copyright to all your emails and private stuff to analyze usage.
Yeah my ISP monitors my bandwidth for sure. But, I don’t know what downloads and internet usage. They passed a bill in US that would let ISPs stalk the users. The bill was waiting for Bush’s signature. I don’t think he signed it. He’s too busy with Iraq.
Plus I can’t do anything about my ISP. I don’t have a choice. Its not like I can get a more privacy-friendly ISP. But, with email I can.
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11 September 2008 at 11:07 pm
I still say who cares. i don’t think they actualy read the actual text of the e-mail, just other stats like how many times you login, if you use imap or http, how long the average visit/ etc…
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11 September 2008 at 11:13 pm
@Dan: I don’t know. Why should you let a big corporation take advantage of you? They have that in their legal stuff for a reason. You don’t just put something in there (especially things like this).
Well I don’t expect everyone to agree with me. Maybe an opinion from a lawyer would help people open their eyes. I don’t even expect everyone to stop using Gmail all of a sudden because of this post. I’m just being honest and throwing it out there.
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11 September 2008 at 11:23 pm
Advantage of me? How? Is the service I’m being provided terrible? Am I paying anything for it? i don’t know how they are taking advantage of me…
Honestly, I’m just another number to them…you takes things to seriously. Nowadays everyone is watching what you do. When you walk into a building or school, will you complain to the principal that the cameras are on?
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12 September 2008 at 12:26 am
@Dan: I seriously wished I could tell what’s going on in the heads of the people at the top of Google. I can’t say anything, but I’ll say this again. You don’t just put stuff like that in your TOS unless you know you’re doing something wrong and want to protect yourself from a lawsuit.
Maybe I do take things seriously. But, hey I didn’t ask anyone to stop using Gmail. I’m an honest blogger and I write about what I feel is important. I guess all the other blogs (such as Gizmodo, Arstechnica, etc) are also taking things a bit too seriously since they posted about the similar issue with Chrome’s TOS.
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12 September 2008 at 3:59 am
It’s bad enough that private correspondence, of itself, could be used for Google’s purposes, and, basically, the TOS indicates that means anything Google sees fit to do with it, but it goes further.. as well as your mail’s contents, any attachments, and, indeed, your e-mail address, can also be used. If you send a file to another person, let’s say an original piece of art, music, whatever, you are licensing Google to use it, and, indeed, modify it and use it..and promulgate it, without recompense..
So, in theory, Google can hijack your work, copyrighted, or not, and do what it likes.. further, in theory, Google can do the same with any work of other’s you transmit via their service, because they can claim that you warranted ownership, and you gave them the right to do what they wanted to with it. This does not bode well for artists, for example, comunicating their work to others..an original song, say..what if Gmail were extant when Lennon and Mc.Cartney were collaborating, and Mc.Cartney sent Lennon a copy of, say, ‘Eleanor Rigby’, especially, prior to formally copywriting the song?
I don’t think Google are necessarilly being ‘evil’ here, but, rather, I suggest that here is a piece of very badly constructed ‘legalese’, which, taken literally, goes far beyond it’s original intended purpose. It’s quite common for the TOS of web based services to do that, and, frankly, from what I’ve seen, hardly anything would be posted on the web by users if they read and took TOS literally and seriously..
I doubt if these company’s are actually legally entitled to do what their TOS indicate they can, whatever they say, and in many cases the courts would rule so, but, the sad truth is, for most of us, to contest any action of which we disapprove would be ridiculously time consuming and cost prohibitive. That, I suspect, is very well known and understood by the likes of Google..
George Bolam, aka @tindle at Twitter.com
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12 September 2008 at 10:14 am
How would an opinion from a lawyer help with anything? We all understand what is being said.
You do take things too seriously and so do some others you have just mentioned but it does not change that you take it too seriously. Just because they do doesn’t mean you have to.
This is a free service so if they do decide to publish your emails on their homepage (very unlikely) they have the right to. If it is their service they should be able to see what it is being used for though as far as I know they don’t do that.
For example a web hosting company should be able to see users files because it is the web hosts server.
Your ISP can see your emails so whats the big deal when a larger company who have better things to do than read your emails has access to it.
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12 September 2008 at 3:12 pm
@george bolam
Google probably can use people work if they wanted to but do you really think they will? It may or may not be legal but if it is legal and they do it people will still lose respect for them and switch to another company for email and searches. Google have too much to lose.
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12 September 2008 at 10:16 pm
@Freemble freemble.com: Well a lawyer would obviously know better if you can take legal actions if something happened.
I guess I do take things seriously, and it turned out good for me too. Bloggers are a bit like journalists of the web and we should obviously tell people what we think is important. And in this case, this is not just important. This is big. Its Google! Everyone uses their stuff.
“This is a free service so if they do decide to publish your emails on their homepage (very unlikely) they have the right to.” - Public schools are free, but that doesn’t mean they can treat students like shit.
“If it is their service they should be able to see what it is being used for though as far as I know they don’t do that.” - And how exactly do you know this?
Web hosts can’t just pop in to your account and look at your files. There are privacy policies. But, they probably could if there was an issue with your account (such as copyright issue).
You’re saying what’s the big deal if Google has copyright to all our stuff? Oh gee, I don’t know. But, you can always switch to another service rather than being a puppet.
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12 September 2008 at 11:12 pm
I think your one of the very few who feels like a puppet when using Google..
Public schools are not free, you pay for registration, but it is true that they are cheaper than private schools (duh)
And with the webhost example, I really doubt that Google will look in your e-mail unless like you said there is a copyright issue with an attachment or another conflict…
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13 September 2008 at 2:20 am
I certainly won’t stop using gmail in response to reading their terms of service! Gmail is BY FAR the best free email provider available.
I think that the comment about Google having much to lose is an excellent point, and one which I hadn’t really thought of. It’s true though. All it would really take is one REAL case in which Google DID do something with a user’s personal info (emails, etc) and as soon as the word got out they could be ruined overnight. Seriously. If they took the work of one of their users and altered it then released it as information on the web, the original source would still exist on the web (like if they took an idea from someone’s email) in its original document and that would technically no longer be information being presented by Google at all, but rather edited information that Google has taken and tampered with. In other words, lies or inaccuracy.
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13 September 2008 at 5:18 am
“”This is a free service so if they do decide to publish your emails on their homepage (very unlikely) they have the right to.” - Public schools are free, but that doesn’t mean they can treat students like shit.”
Public schools are not allowed to treat you like shit because doing so is a criminal offence especially a they are run by the government.
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13 September 2008 at 9:14 am
The above is actually form the Google TOS. There is a separate Gmail TOS which Google states supersedes the Google TOS when they are in conflict. The following clause appears in the Gmail TOS and would seem to supersede the above referenced Google TOS.
5. Intellectual Property Rights. Google’s Intellectual Property Rights. You acknowledge that Google owns all right, title and interest in and to the Service, including without limitation all intellectual property rights (the “Google Rights”), and such Google Rights are protected by U.S. and international intellectual property laws. Accordingly, you agree that you will not copy, reproduce, alter, modify, or create derivative works from the Service. You also agree that you will not use any robot, spider, other automated device, or manual process to monitor or copy any content from the Service. The Google Rights include rights to (i) the Service developed and provided by Google; and (ii) all software associated with the Service. The Google Rights do not include third-party content used as part of Service, including the content of communications appearing on the Service.
Your Intellectual Property Rights. Google does not claim any ownership in any of the content, including any text, data, information, images, photographs, music, sound, video, or other material, that you upload, transmit or store in your Gmail account. We will not use any of your content for any purpose except to provide you with the Service.
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13 September 2008 at 2:38 pm
Pwnt.
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13 September 2008 at 2:42 pm
Give me an email service as good as Gmail, I will switch. Is there anything like Gmail?
Interestingly, there are a lot of alternatives for search other than Google though.
Regards,
Subhankar Ray
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13 September 2008 at 4:08 pm
@Subhankar Ray: Hotmail is good but nowhere near as good.
The best would be to run your own exchange server and use outlook and outlook web access.
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13 September 2008 at 4:17 pm
@Freemble: Maybe that wasn’t a good example to explain this to you. Free doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t respect you or your privacy and rights.
@Tim: Can you please link to the place where you found that? And also tell us how you got there.
@Subhankar Ray: Windows Live Hotmail (aka Hotmail). Actually there isn’t really a good alternative to Google’s search. But, there are tons to Gmail.
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13 September 2008 at 4:39 pm
@th13rteen: I am not saying they shouldn’t but in fact they should but they don’t have to. If they want to run a successful business they have to.
Yahoo mail and Hotmail are awesome but nowhere near as good as GMail.
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13 September 2008 at 10:03 pm
What Tim said…he’s right…read this to get informed!
Gmail TOS: http://gmail.google.com/mail/help/terms_of_use.html
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13 September 2008 at 10:07 pm
@Donald: Okay how did you get that link? I got my version of TOS by clicking on “Terms” from the bottom of Gmail and then clicking on “Terms of Service”.
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19 November 2008 at 7:09 pm
[...] probably start using Gmail more. But, their privacy policy freaks me out. I’ll have to do my research and see if they’ve made any changes to their policies. I [...]
17 December 2008 at 3:49 am
After its search and advertising core businesses, one of Google’s hottest products is its Gmail service. One of the most widely used free email services on the internet; Google is constantly at work improving the service. Typically upgrades
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12 February 2009 at 1:05 pm
thanks !! very helpful post!
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7 April 2009 at 8:45 am
There is obviously a lot to know about this. I think you made some good points in Features also.
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14 April 2009 at 2:17 pm
I usually don?t post in Blogs but your blog forced me to, amazing work.. beautiful ?
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