Gmail is, for me, a near perfect service. I use it as my destination mailbox for over 30 security-related mailing lists that I monitor every day. Gmail makes it simple to follow the conversations and sort the different list traffic into meaningful views. Unlike other mail clients, I find this mail system to be incredibly helpful for me.

My point is this: The mailing list traffic is already public. Nobody is going to learn anything about me from that mail, and I actually may want to see ads for products related to the concepts and keywords in those messages. I can't think of a more appropriate use for Gmail.

It amazes me how there is so much discussion about the privacy impacts, as if the only use for email is private conversations. In fact, for sensitive subjects, I don't even use *my own* private email on my own server. Normal email is simply not secure. Why should anybody expect *more* privacy from Gmail?

I, for one, am impressed with the Gmail interface.

-Shawn Nunley, CISSP

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