I. Introduction
Gmail was launched in April 2004 by Google Inc. as a free email service. By offering account holders one gigabyte of storage capacity and powerful searching that allows them to search their entire email archives almost instantly, Gmail encourages them to never delete anything in their mail box. Another key feature of Gmail is that when users read their emails, revenue-generating ads will be displayed based on keywords found in the emails they are reading, making Gmail not just a database but a shopping service.
II. Identification of central problem
Gmail is a very nice and promising product. However, since its introduction, Gmail has raised many concerns, mainly related to its users’ privacy. The thing many people reacted to the most is the fact that not only do they search it, but they scan on viewing to provide ads that match the content. Though Google’s ad-linking is all done by computer and they promise not to have human beings look at the mail (Mark, 2004), people still have a reaction to a 3rd party computer doing scans like this because of the privacy fears they have. Email, as well as other communication applications, reflect people’s real social network. People usually think of their email as fairly private, and they do a lot of private stuff with emails. It has been said that it is important to not only have your privacy, but also to believe you have your privacy. How much an individual think he is being watched affects his freedom and how much a society thinks it is being watched affects the freedom of the society (Templeton, n.d.). The fear, whether or not it is rational, maybe well reduces the number of users and thus do harm to Goole’s business.
III. Proposed solutions and recommendations
Given the central problem that Google is facing, we hereby suggest some plans of action for addressing it:
Firstly, Google needs to refine their policies and contracts. Any policy that can be changed to protect users’ privacy and does no business harm to the company’s plans should be refined (Templeton, n.d.).
Secondly, Google can take some technical actions to improve the protection of users’ privacy, such as encrypting a user’s email, searching index and other related information. Since even irrational fears affect the users’ sense of freedom and thus perhaps reduce the number of users, encrypting should be considered in software design.
Thirdly, Google can use the following strategies to effectively communicate with their current and potential customers: 1).They should use different communication channels to inform public that as a company of good reputation, Google always keeps its users’ privacy at heart. 2).They should let more people know that computerized scanning is essential to filter out viruses and spam and thus maintain high-quality customer service. Many other email service providers, such as Yahoo, Hotmail, and AOL, also routinely scan all emails to filter out spam and viruses. Similarly, the aim of displaying ads based on the scanned keywords in Gmail, is not just to generate revenues but also provide users with a better shopping service. The fear that computerized scanning of emails will result in actual harm is largely baseless. Thus, there has been over-reaction to Gmail’s computerized scanning of emails. 3). They can educate the public that email itself is not a very secure communication channel for the fact that transmitting an email message consists of having a number of programs on different machines read and store it and typically passes through a number of computers and routers to get to its destination, and anyone who equipped with a packet sniffer at any of those sites can snoop any mail that they want. Those who are concerned about their privacy can simply not use any email service.
IV. Other alternatives
Some other alternatives can be considered by Google. For example, to reduce users’ fears about privacy violation, Google can cancel the features of scanning emails to add ads based on the keywords. They also can allow the account holders to choose if they would like to use the shopping service. If they choose not to use the shopping service, their email will not be scanned and ads will not be displayed in their email. Since Gmail’s revenue is primarily generated from this kind of advertising, those actions will sacrifice the company’s long-term interest. With adequate cash generated from other operations, the company has the flexibility to not shy away from high-risk, high-rewarded projects because of short-term earning pressure (Mark, 2004). For this reason, we don’t recommend those two alternatives to Google.
V. Conclusion
The solutions we have examined above provide an initial view of how to address the key issues that exist in Google’s business. There is no simple answer for how Gmail can improve its performance. But it becomes manageable when boiled down to the following essential elements: refining their policies and contracts, taking some technical actions, and communicating with public in more effective ways.
Reference：
Templeton, B. Privacy Subtleties of GMail. Retrieved May 10, 2006, from http://www.templetons.com/brad/gmail.html
Mark, K. (2004). Google Inc.: Launching Gmail. Study case for EXT 506 -- Using and Managing Communications Networks
Grinsven, L. & Warner, B. April 19 2004. Privacy group files Google Gmail Complains. Reuters News.
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