a quick note to say--

[kaberett]

In which the Internet is creepy: I spent Thursday & Friday nights at facesfriend's place. At no point did I connect to an internet via my laptop; at no point did I search the 'net for directions; and my phone Doesn't Internet and is in no wise associated with either Google or FB accounts. Most of our IMing is via gchat or IRC. How, then, is it that when I rocked up on facebook a little while ago from the Oxford Tube, it asked me if I lived in Cambridge, London, or facesfriend's area of town? BECAUSE IT HAS NEVER ASKED ME THAT BEFORE and Thursday was at most the second time I have been to that neck of the woods in my life.

Comments

[hairyears]

I don't think they do.

However, they definitely harvest all the metadata; and that's arguably *more* powerful than reading and understanding the text of your emails.

[alexseanchai]

Valid point.

[azurelunatic]

Depends what you mean by "read". I use Gmail, and there are things they do which have to include automatic parsing of the contents, not just metadata. I don't think a person reads it, but I do think it's being read.