In the last two weeks email privacy concerns have been pushed to the front of the news by Google’s launch of their Buzz service, a competitor to Twitter and Facebook built into the GMail service. If you don’t use Twitter or Facebook, the obvious question becomes: Why should I care? The answer to this question was answered by an excellent article by Robert McMillan in PC World. Google’s Buzz service, by default, disclosed in a list people with whom an account holder frequently communicated. While I hate to pick on Google, since they certainly are not the only email provider with privacy issues, this particular case provides a window into issues surrounding email use in a ministerial setting.
Let’s take a few minutes and look at some of the possible privacy issues brought to light by Google’s misstep with Buzz.
1. Google’s change in Terms of Service states very clearly that Google can change their relationship to users without prior notice to the user; additionally, your decision to use any Google services implies agreement with this policy. Google is not alone in this practice, as many major providers of free services follow the same pattern.
2. Google’s business is centered around contextualized advertising. The company can and does tailor advertising to the subject lines of your inbox. What this means is that your subject lines are being logged and used for advertising; you might want to care about that since your subject lines are thus still logged even after the emails have been deleted.
3. Google’s Buzz made your list of frequently used contacts public by default. This issue ties together the first two already brought up; specifically, Google has the ability to make these types of changes without your concept and these changes can compromise your privacy. The main issue I have here, for those in ministry, is that this change could have potentially exposed counseling contacts to other Google users. Would someone meeting with you, for whatever reason, necessarily want it to be known that they had been in frequent email communication? At what point does this represent an unacceptable breach of privacy?
Posted in Tech
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Tagged email, Google, privacy
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All right, so I fixed the glitch in the documentation engine. The good news for everyone is that the pages should start populating with information as fast as I can upload. That’s the bad news for me, as I’m typing as fast as I can. If anyone has suggestions for the FAQs, please email me at mike@mnwconsulting.com and I will get those sections incorporated as quickly as possible. Examples of these suggestions would be things like “How can I save files as PDFs” or “How do I set up email signatures”? (Hint, these two are already being written)
-Mike
Hey everyone,
I’m still working on the documentation pages. Long story short, I hit a snag with one piece of the site that hadn’t been updated in a while. I should have that ironed out later today and the data will start rolling in. In the meantime, feel free to stop by the forums and leave comments/questions there. Thanks for your patience.
-Mike
The site has been up for all of about 3 hours, and already I’m starting to get emails from users that either I don’t know or I haven’t talked to in several years — that’s actually great and I’m really excited. With that in mind, however, I thought it might be good for me to post a little about myself since you guys are about to entrust me with your email addresses.
My name is Mike Wilkins. I’m a 30 year old resident of Philadelphia with a BA from Central Bible College and most of an MA in Religion from Temple University. I’ve also been working in corporate IT since I graduated from college in 2002, although I’ve recently changed career paths in order to finish up my Master’s degree and eventually move to Central America. Having seen both sides of churches struggling with IT needs beyond their financial means, I decided to start this site with the hope that it will alleviate at least one area of stress that plagues all too many in the ministry. Already others have volunteered to help in this mission and I am very hopeful that this site will grow into a valuable resource for those that choose to use it.
Thanks for coming. I hope you find what you are looking for.
Mike
I’ve been thinking a lot over the last several days about different ways I could put my IT knowledge to good use; specifically, how I can help pastors and missionaries that have questions but don’t have the money to seek professional computer help.
What I’ve come up with is a three-fold approach that I hope will prove useful to the community and that I hope will give ministers and missionaries an outlet to ask questions and get the help they need. First, I am going to start blogging on computer topics that are relevant to church administration. Second, I just opened up forums where registered users will be able to ask tech questions, which I will endeavor to answer on a timely basis. Third, I am working on getting the Wiki pages (frequently asked questions, mostly, see wikipedia.org) up and running before the weekend.
I hope that anyone that visits the site will take the time to look through the offerings and leave feedback, as I do appreciate both the positive and the negative criticism on the site. With some help I believe this resource will prove valuable for those that choose to use it.
Be sure to check out the forums link in the upper right-hand corner of the site.
Posted in Tech
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Tagged Tech
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After much delay, debate, and evasion, I am finally setting up my own blog. Welcome to my world, I hope you feel right at home.
