Free E-mail: The Good and The Bad
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Free e-mail accounts offer a wide variety of bells and whistles. Some offer huge amounts of storage, while others offer special functionality like organizing and forwarding. Like the vast multitudes of users, I, too, have enjoyed the many benefits they offer. I’ve been known to whimper quietly to myself if I don’t get to my inbox on a regular basis. :D.
And why would anyone not want one of these accounts? They offer us easy accessibility while on the road, nice features to make sure our e-mails are free from infection, and more. But, they also afford us a means of protecting that one special account we all desire to have free from spam. You know the one; the address you only give to your close circle of friends.
Despite all the great things we get out of it, however, there’s one thing that often gets overlooked.
I’m talking about security.
Sensitive information has no place in any e-mail, IMHO, especially in a free e-mail account.
Think about it: are you really expecting high-tech security from free e-mail? Ever heard of, “you get what you pay for?” Sure, the big e-mail providers like Gmail, Yahoo!, and Hotmail have some security measures in place, but without the almightly dollar to help them out, any provider may not be well-motivated to commit themselves to providing more than they have to to compete.
It’s a good rule of thumb not to put anything into an e-mail message that you wouldn’t mind sharing with the world. Who knows? There have been situations where something that was once thought of as a private conversation either brought serious damage to someone’s life or career, or at the very least embarrased the parties involved when it somehow got out to the public. So just keep that in mind before you put anything in writing. 
Here are some other tips to consider when choosing a free e-mail provider or sticking with the free account you currently have:
- Be sure to review the privacy policy of whatever vendor you choose. Are they keeping your personal information to themselves, or are they trading/selling/renting your information?
- Use hard-to-figure-out passwords. Words in the dictionary, your birthday, your pet’s name are all too easy to figure out by someone who knows you. And btw, most identity theft crimes are made by people who are close to you, so this is even more reason to thinking of a password that’s more complicated than your name.
- Is the service reliable? Check out what the vendor says about what they are really offering you. Can you download your messages to your computer? Are there any restrictions that might conflict with your normal way of using e-mail?
Looking for an account or maybe interested in switching to another vendor? You may want to try these:
- Gmail (although they’re still in beta, I’ve been using them for over a year and it works fine; accounts are by invitation only, so ask if a friend of yours has one to send you)
- Yahoo!
- Hotmail
- Mail.com
- Free e-mail providers
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Comments
Scott, I have no idea. I’ve had that many invitations to send out as well, and the few times that I’ve sent them out, they are quick to replenish. It seems a bit long to be in beta since March of last year. Perhaps they’re going to unveil something special when they do go public.
Yeah, I don’t really know how much more Google improve on Gmail…it is already much better than Yahoo Mail or Hotmail, in my opinion. But maybe they’ll surprise us with something.
Any idea when Gmail is going to go public? I’ve had 50 invites sitting in my account for quite some time.
Scott