Google Scolded By Privacy Officials.

Mellon Head said:

seekermeister said:

If someone could refer me to a webmail service that is equal to GMail, I would get rid of my account there, but I don't think that such a thing exists.

You can get rid of a Gmail account? I thought it was impossible, cuz I can't find a way to get rid of mine. It's like they think they own me, or something.

And that is precisely why I won't go anywhere near GMail.

whs said:

I am very happy with AOL. It is not perfect, especially their browser which is very slow. But for mail it is ideal. I used it from day1 and can still retrieve my mail from day1. I don't have to worry about my mail backup and can access it from any coffee shop. Plus, there is zero spam. It is very easy to set up and migration from system to system is a piece of cake.

When I read all those threads where people have problems with their mail, I am certainly glad I chose AOL. In all these years we never had a single problem, neither my wife not myself. Btw: my wife does everything with AOL. She has never used another browser - but she is more patient than me. The upside is that she never caught a virus.

god help you when/if you ever decide to get rid of it, it buries itself in everything

Which is why it is not so affectionately called "AoHELL" I don't know if that still is the case; but it was certainly true a few years back. I have avoided AOL even more than I avoid Google. But in all fairness, that may not be the case now. AOL may have cleaned up their coding and their act. It did use to be very tenacious and difficult to get rid of. It made a lot of system changes that did not revert back when uninstalled.

I can't argue that it is not that way now; but years back it certainly was not the case. AOL virtually took over a machine. It has been 12-15 years since I had AOL on a machine. I am certainly open to the possibility, that AOL has cleaned up its act.