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FastMail Forum All posts relating to FastMail.FM should go here: suggestions, comments, requests for help, complaints, technical issues etc. |
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20 Sep 2021, 02:28 AM | #16 |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: May 2003
Location: mostly in Thailand
Posts: 3,095
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People who think they are completely unaffected by what they see, read and hear, are deluding themselves. Organisations are willing to invest huge sums conducting influence campaigns, including advertising, because they are based on a solid scientific understanding of human psychology. Some of us are less influenced by such messaging. None of us are immune.
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20 Sep 2021, 03:41 AM | #17 | |
Master of the @
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Location: USA
Posts: 1,877
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20 Sep 2021, 03:48 AM | #18 |
Master of the @
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: USA
Posts: 1,751
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Of course we are all influenced by advertising, just like we are influenced by reading the newspaper, going to church, or visiting a park. That doesn't mean that all advertising is a nefarious plot to get you to purchase something you don't want or need. Many nonprofit organizations that do good work use advertising. My local transit company advertises its schedule changes and its new routes. Local shops and restaurants advertise special offers and menus. Our state and local governments advertising things like vaccine clinics and govenment programs. If I need a new phone I'll read the ads, but in between phone purchases I won't. In fact, most of the time I see very few ads because I utilize ad blockers, and also I skim right past the ads I do see--I couldn't tell you for sure what they are advertising. However, don't we have some will and discernment? For example, I might read the phone ads to see what they say, but then I will follow up by viewing and reading many more review and test sites, I might visit a store and actually look at the phone and try it out. Once in awhile I focus on the ads just to see what I am being served and I am almost always perplexed why I am being served up ads that are of no interest or use to me. For example, I am of a certain age where judging from the advertising I should be taking many different pills, searching the Internet for adult diapers, and talking to a financial advisor about how they would like to take a percentage of my retirement money in exchange for me being secure in the knowledge they are ripping me off. Instead I am going for a motorcycle ride, which for some strange reason I see almost no advertising for even though I have owned one for many years, subscribe to various things, and do a lot of Internet reading about. I'm not convinced this all-seeing Internet ad machine is actually very effective at doing what many think it is doing.
Last edited by TenFour : 20 Sep 2021 at 03:57 AM. |
20 Sep 2021, 04:23 AM | #19 | |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Manchester UK
Posts: 2,616
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This thread is veering away from the OP's question:
Quote:
If something were to happen to Fastmail to cause you to leave, that is not the time to start searching for an alternative provider. And you don't have to run all your e-mails through one provider. Be prepared! |
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20 Sep 2021, 09:09 AM | #20 |
Essential Contributor
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: UK
Posts: 270
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You have given up your agency, your humanity, your hope. You are a dead soul.
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20 Sep 2021, 03:55 PM | #21 | |
Master of the @
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: USA
Posts: 1,877
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21 Sep 2021, 07:52 AM | #22 |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: VK4
Posts: 3,029
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Its not the horror of seeing the ads but how my info was mined to produce the ads that were applicable to me and no one else in my family.
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21 Sep 2021, 08:15 AM | #23 |
Essential Contributor
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: UK
Posts: 270
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That anyone could respond to that thoughtful, considered, eloquent post by China Lamb with trite talk about "tinfoil hats" just makes me... angry.
Ten Four is saying "Submit!, Submit!". Any unbroken, sane person will respond "NEVER!" We are not powerless, much as you would like us to be, Ten Four. |
25 Sep 2021, 07:30 PM | #24 | |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,937
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For me anyways, blocking ads isn't even about privacy. It's about usability/readability. |
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25 Sep 2021, 07:51 PM | #25 | |
Master of the @
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: USA
Posts: 1,751
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25 Sep 2021, 10:06 PM | #26 |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: EU
Posts: 4,945
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25 Sep 2021, 10:25 PM | #27 |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: May 2003
Location: mostly in Thailand
Posts: 3,095
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There is never a 100% guarantee against something like that. However, part of the job of the security teams at the better large providers is auditing their employees to prevent that kind of abuse. Any employee at Google accessing a user's messages without a valid reason has a very good chance of losing their job.
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25 Sep 2021, 10:29 PM | #28 |
Member
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 48
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TenFour seems to be a little naive, but thats the community we live in today. What rubs me is that when those of my acquaintances that choose to use gmail and I communicate, gmail now has information about me to data mine and sell. I never ceases to amaze me when I happen to mention a product to a gmail friend that usually spam shortly arrives. Its not only the sheep they data mine.
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25 Sep 2021, 10:40 PM | #29 |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: EU
Posts: 4,945
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Here we go again...
Info from 2017 about Gmail not data mining Last edited by janusz : 26 Sep 2021 at 12:41 AM. |
25 Sep 2021, 11:32 PM | #30 | |
Master of the @
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Location: USA
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