10-16-2021, 02:50 PM
Oh, that new-fangled gmail... I have printouts of computer mail of mine from 45 years ago.. My main work email address is 40 years old (modulo transitioning from .arpa to .com).
Maybe others are different, but most of my email is person-to-person(s) communications and usually specific, rarely about something controversial.
What would more likely do me in would be discussion lists (like The CARDboard) where topics might be more controversial and clearly more public. (There are 40-year old discussion lists available on the web to which I contributed (with my undisguised real name). Thankfully, I've always steered clear of any controversial ideas or phrasings.) Social media and other postings (for instance, comments on a news media article) are also very public.
Even if you think your email to someone will be treated confidentially, things change. Friendships & allegiances change; divorces happen. Even if that doesn't happen, email is a prime target for bad guys to collect and process. How many times have you gotten bogus email supposedly from some email address that you once shared a message with? That probably means that message is in some bad guy's treasure archive (and other bad guys may buy it from him).
Regarding encrypted email, do recognize that if someone competent enough gets into your computer, they can probably use you to get through the encryption barrier. And it won't matter much to them if there is some rule/agreement/law against doing so.
I'm more concerned about the ubiquity of microphones, on computing devices, TV remotes, Alexa/Siri, security cameras, etc. Not all utterances a person makes have gone through their own filters of reason. ("I could just kill him.") [And, yes, my first official complaint about potential misuse by microphones on computers was about 38 years ago. Hmmm... let me see if I have that email somewhere (;-)]
Also, a problem with deleting old email is that if another recipient produces an altered copy, you have no data to back up a counter claim that it was not the real message.
Maybe others are different, but most of my email is person-to-person(s) communications and usually specific, rarely about something controversial.
What would more likely do me in would be discussion lists (like The CARDboard) where topics might be more controversial and clearly more public. (There are 40-year old discussion lists available on the web to which I contributed (with my undisguised real name). Thankfully, I've always steered clear of any controversial ideas or phrasings.) Social media and other postings (for instance, comments on a news media article) are also very public.
Even if you think your email to someone will be treated confidentially, things change. Friendships & allegiances change; divorces happen. Even if that doesn't happen, email is a prime target for bad guys to collect and process. How many times have you gotten bogus email supposedly from some email address that you once shared a message with? That probably means that message is in some bad guy's treasure archive (and other bad guys may buy it from him).
Regarding encrypted email, do recognize that if someone competent enough gets into your computer, they can probably use you to get through the encryption barrier. And it won't matter much to them if there is some rule/agreement/law against doing so.
I'm more concerned about the ubiquity of microphones, on computing devices, TV remotes, Alexa/Siri, security cameras, etc. Not all utterances a person makes have gone through their own filters of reason. ("I could just kill him.") [And, yes, my first official complaint about potential misuse by microphones on computers was about 38 years ago. Hmmm... let me see if I have that email somewhere (;-)]
Also, a problem with deleting old email is that if another recipient produces an altered copy, you have no data to back up a counter claim that it was not the real message.