Thanks to all for the many responses. This list is tremendously useful!

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004, Paul Russell wrote:

[I wrote initially, in error: ]
>> A second
>> is that email is stored potentially forever, even if you delete it from
>> your personal storage area.

>The Gmail 'about' page says that users never need to delete messages; it does
>not say that users cannot delete messages.

Paul does point out an error in my original posting. What is true is that
deleted messages may "stick around" for awhile because they are in
backups- but that's no different than on other systems.

And with more reading and reflection, I tend to agree with the following:

>I do not want to trivialize the concerns expressed about Gmail, however, it
>appears to me that the only real differences between Gmail and almost every
>other email service provider is the size of the user's mailbox and the ability
>to use the Google search engine to search archived mail. What assurance do any
>of us have that our email service provider is not reading and/or archiving our
>mail?