
Email Finally Emerges as a Platform - Setsuna
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/greplin_wisestamp_email_apps.php#more
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loup-vaillant
> _That product was probably ahead of its time, it's not fully in the cloud
> and it's not free._

> _The key enabling factor […] is a secure way to grant temporary access to
> […] your email to trusted developers out in the larger ecosystem […] - all
> without ever giving them your precious email password._

> _The sky's the limit when you can quickly process huge stores of your own
> personal data, though._

Am I the only one that find that downright scary? Who wants a future in which
several (not just one) profitable companies can access your e-mail _and_
analysing it blazing fast? That may be a dream for some, but for me that's an
Orwellian nightmare.

Here's a reminder, for the few that haven't seen it yet:
[http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2010/feb/01/freedom-
clou...](http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2010/feb/01/freedom-cloud-
software-freedom-privacy-and-securit/)

~~~
mike-cardwell
"Who wants a future in which several (not just one) profitable companies can
access your e-mail and analysing it blazing fast?"

It's all about choice. If I want to grant some organisation access to all, or
a subset of my email, then that's fine. It's up to the individual what they
want to share and with whom.

~~~
randallsquared
It's going to take a long time, though, before it really sinks in to the
general population that you cannot reliably _remove_ access to data. In the
interim, we'll continue to have lots of hand-wringing and legal flailing
about, which makes this whole space uncertain for companies too large to move
offshore and too small to throw lobbyists at the problem.

~~~
mcav
It may take a while to sink in, but even if it does, the general public
probably won't care enough to change their behavior. People want instant
gratification; they'll see it at most as a gamble: "What are the odds that
this company will do something wrong with my data?"... or at worst, they'll
just ignore the risk of consequences completely, like many people do in daily
life.

~~~
prodigal_erik
Which of course is the wrong question. The right question is "what are the
odds that someone will acquire this company so that they can do something
wrong to all its users?"

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camworld
Again, completely useless unless you are using Gmail. Wake me when they come
out with a Firefox plugin that doesn't require Gmail.

Really cool, though (I'm referring to Rapportive).

~~~
mike-cardwell
I can see other desktop email clients and webmail clients wanting to add this
sort of functionality. Does rapportive offer any sort of API to the social
networking data they display?

~~~
olegp
Take a look at <http://www.rapleaf.com/developer>

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naner
Some of these sound useful but I think we could all do without the services
that append more crap to your email. It's obnoxious.

