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April 7, 2006
This Email Will Self-Destruct in Four Months ....
Liam Breck asks whether it's "right" for free web email services like Yahoo to dogmatically delete email from accounts if the account isn't used for four months. While it's understandably irritating, it's an unsurprising decision. The services have to draw the line somewhere, and they also need some "paid" services. I'm curious whether other people disagree.
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I make the point that the mass market will not trust online office-app services, like Writely (which store stuff that's arguably more valuable than email), because users don't own their data. Yahoo's policy demonstrates this very clearly.
I think the trust gap exists regardless of whether the service is ad- or user-paid. If user-paid, you're simply renting your own data.
It's not even a question of "right" or "wrong". Anybody relying on free services should check the terms - the 4-month clause has been a long standing policy, so basically nobody can claim a surprise.
Free service: check terms, decide go / no-go.