My RSS Feed is a Thinker and blog is a top resource for anything technology. You will be up to speed with TechCrunch who has Just Posted the Following on TechCrunch:
It’s 2009. Storage is so cheap that Email providers like Yahoo are literally giving you
as much space as you want. Yet we still have to deal with archaic policies that allow these Email providers to delete everything in our inboxes if, for whatever reason, we forget to login for a few months.
The time limits vary: Yahoo cuts you off at 4 months, Windows Live Hotmail at 60 days, and Gmail after a more lenient
9 months of inactivity (you can see a more comprehensive listing
here). Most of them have some kind of grace period where your account enters a deactivated ‘hibernation’ state, but still retains its data. Some of them have these policies in print but rarely actually delete your account. But for others, once you cross the threshold, every Email message, photo, and file attachment is gone for good.
Take Yahoo, for example. Now that the free service includes unlimited storage, the site uses the threat of deleting your account as a way to convince users to upgrade to its premium Yahoo Plus! for $20/year (you can see the wording in the screenshot below). Since when did my data become a bartering tool?
Of course, all of these services are provided for free - none of them are obligated to give us anything. But they are also loaded with ads, and help drive users to each service’s web portal so they can access their integrated inboxes. Webmail is no charity.
Years ago, when space was relatively costly the restrictions made sense. Now that each service uses excessively large or unlimited storage limits to entice users, one would think that they’d be able to support stagnant accounts. Granted, it’s more complicated than a pure storage issue. Every account is likely backed up multiple times, which multiplies both bandwidth, processing, and storage costs. But given a choice I’d much rather sacrifice my Email’s maximum size limit if it meant I could keep my data online indefinitely.
The issue extends beyond just Email. Now that more services are moving to the cloud, our data is increasingly at the mercy of these web companies - an unsettling thought given the precedent set by webmail services. Earlier this year a spammy chainletter proclaiming that Facebook was deleting inactive accounts (it isn’t)
thrived by tapping into these fears. And as more users begin storing their vital documents and photos in the cloud, the risks of forgetting to login every few months are only going to increase.
(Image from Failblog)Crunch Network:
CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
click here to read more from and support TechCrunch
TechCrunch: Why Do We Still Let Webmail Services Get Away With Deleting Our Data?
Linear Mode
