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Some jurisdictions have laws to protect data privacy (Switzerland), while others have laws in place to erode it (the US and Australia). You might well be safer using a smaller, less well-known email service.Īnother concern is where your email service is located and how this may affect your data and privacy. In March, the big news was the ease with which hackers were able to compromise thousands of Microsoft Exchange email servers. While Gmail does allow users to opt out of some invasive features, the basic business model of these services revolves around data collection.īig-name email services put lots of money into security, but they are also large targets and not invulnerable. Yahoo has been caught scanning emails in real-time for US surveillance agencies.Advertisers have been allowed to scan Yahoo and AOL accounts to “identify and segment potential customers by picking up on contextual buying signals, and past purchases.”.Gmail was caught giving third parties full access to user emails and also tracking all of your purchases.Most large email providers, such as Gmail and Yahoo, do not respect the privacy of your inbox. Unless you are using a secure email service that respects your privacy, the answer is probably no. Are your emails and attachments safe from prying eyes?
