Srinivas Padma: Personal Musings on Life, Growth, and Connections

Saving that parting email from your first love in your inbox? Well, chances are, after you pass away, your spouse and the entire family will know about the long-held secret. This is because web email services like Hotmail and Gmail do not let users specify what should happen to their messages when they die. In fact, email services owned by internet giants like Google and Microsoft have a policy of keeping your data after you die and letting your next of kin or the executor of your estate access it. These services can hold tens of thousands of messages. Accounts with Gmail can hold up to 7GB — or roughly 70,000 emails with a small to medium picture attached to each and they archive the messages you’ve written as well as received. When it comes to deleting the data, Microsoft’s Hotmail will remove an account if it is inactive for 270 days, while Gmail leaves the responsibility to the next of kin. Of the top three providers, only Yahoo refuses to supply emails to anyone after the user ...

Deccan Chronicle: SHAUKAT H. MOHAMMED If you think that the mails you have seen sending or forwarding e-mails using Yahoo! of Gmail or other free Web-based mail cannot be traced, think again. Each and every mail can be tracked back and you could be in a world of hurt if you have forwarded sensitive stuff, or vulgar stuff for that matter. The following case should illustrate just how careful you need to be with your emailing habits. Admittedly this has happened, is happening, in the United States, but it is equally germane anywhere around the world . First, some quick facts of the case: A former employee, let’s call him Mr. X, of Source Media, which publishes financial market information, has been arrested and charged for reading confidential e-mails about pending personnel moves and for sending e-mail messages to the affected employees, tipping them off that their jobs were in jeopardy. Mr X had been director of information technology at Source Media, which employs over 1,000 people, b...