Privacy advocates are getting all riled up over Gmail “terms of service”. I kinda of had to laugh as if Hotmail and Yahoo have any less interesting “terms of service”
I have always been concerned about privacy and I host my own e-mail server. It sites in my house and I pay commercial rates to the cable company for the privilege to have the server in my home. I am not a typical home user as I pay for off-site storage so that in case of fire or other disaster my digital life will be spared. I even have a hard-drive that I cycle through a safe deposit box to insure that my digital life will remain intact. This includes backups to my various business websites etc.
So if you want privacy host your own e-mail! If you want to have convenience then you need to accept that someone may be snooping around your data. I personally think a place to store a gig of e-mail for some that do not have a backup routine would be pretty convenience for the average user. [John Gilmore]