How Confidential Is Your G-mail, Yahoo and MSN email?

Data Theft is a frequent problem on the big “free” e-mail sites

Let’s face it, hacking email accounts, address books and using your e-mail address without your permission is BIG business and hacking the big “free” mail services is very rewarding for hackers looking for big paydays.  That’s the reason you see headlines like these so often:

“5 million Gmail passwords leaked”  CNN Money September 14, 2014

“Hackers attack Yahoo Mail accounts”  CNN Money January 30, 2014

Using these so-called free services is just an open invitation to hackers to take your information.

The best way to limit your exposure to these activities is to avoid these large targets on the Internet and use your own domain services and email servers.  Yes, small domains can be exploited too but hackers usually aim at the bigger hosts that contain more usable data.

Now let’s talk about privacy  

Google court filing says "g-mail users have no expectation of privacy" 

Did you ever ask yourself why all of these services offer “free” email accounts?   The answer is in 2 little words – DATA MINING.  They use your communications to accumulate data that they can sell.  Hackers want your email address to add to their spamming lists and also as cover for delivering malware and other illegal activities.

Google declared in a legal pleading in a data mining lawsuit in 2013:

"Just as a sender of a letter to a business colleague cannot be surprised that the recipient's assistant opens the letter, people who use web-based email today cannot be surprised if their emails are processed by the recipient's [e-mail provider] in the course of delivery. Indeed, 'a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over to third parties.'"    

In business, first impressions are important!

Another great reason for having your own email services is it boosts you professional profile.  Have you ever looked at a senders email address, noted it was a “free” address like bob1234@gmail.com and wondered how big an operation that guy is running if he won’t spend a few bucks to have his own company name e-mail address?  Bob1234 may be a great guy but can you be sure he isn’t just some fly-by-night nobody? Is he using g-mail to hide who he really is because any bozo can get an email account there?  He sure doesn’t appear to be concerned about privacy, does he?  Did you ever notice that spammers frequently use the so-called “free” accounts?

Private email addresses with your own company name aren’t expensive.  ACT can set up your corporate e-mail service for as little as $14.95 per month with 10 email accounts plus we’ll host your own business web site at the same time.  Call ACT Network Solutions (847) 639-7000.  Mention this blog post and we'll throw in 2 extra months of service at no charge if you sign up for 1 year of service.