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Free Email Services — Revisited

By Remar Sutton, DCU StreetWise Spokesperson
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Several years ago we looked at three free web-based email services: Hotmail, Yahoo!, and Mail.com. In the ensuing years not much worth mentioning happened. That all changed recently with Google’s entrance into the arena with Gmail. This review looks again at Hotmail, Yahoo!, and Mail.com and takes a first look at Gmail.
As usual, the term “free” has a catch. You “pay” for these services not with cash but with your demographic information. StreetWise tip: Always, always read the privacy policy (and any related privacy policies) when providing personal information. That said, these services can be useful if you need to be able to access your email from any computer. You also must accept cookies in order to use any of these sites.
The privacy policies of these services describe how they use cookies and web beacons. Cookies are identification text files stored on your computer. They are necessary for online banking and online shopping. Other good uses for cookies include: site personalization, automatic site login. A bad use is to track the sites you’ve visited. These cookies are usually from third-parties such as ad companies. Web beacons (also called web bugs or clear GIFs) are tiny transparent graphics that are used to monitor activity on a web site. Controlling cookies can also reduce the information collected by web beacons. (Click on your browser’s help button for information on controlling cookies.)
Here’s a summary of what each service offers.
Hotmail
Hotmail is part of MSN. Your sign-in name and password are actually a Microsoft .NET Passport. The .NET Passport allows you to use your Hotmail email address and password to sign-in to all .NET participating sites and services. StreetWise tip: .NET Passport has a separate privacy policy from MSN, so make sure you read both before signing up. Hotmail offerings will increase as accounts will be upgraded over the next several months.
  • Size of account: 2 MB currently, 250MB when upgraded.
  • Message size including attachments: 1MB currently, 10MB upgraded.
  • Virus scanning: Scans outgoing and incoming attachments currently, scan and clean when upgraded.
  • Spam/junk mail control: Choose from 3 levels of junk filtering. Block messages from specific addresses using the Block Sender list (max 500 entries). Allow messages from specific addresses using the Safe List (max 500 entries). Choose to have junk email deleted automatically or placed in the junk email folder where it will be deleted after 5 days.
  • Message organizing: Can create folders. Also can create up to 10 filters (15 upgraded) to sort your incoming mail.
  • Privacy Policy: Both the MSN and .NET Passport privacy policies are very detailed and lengthy. The Hotmail section specifies that your registration information is used to operate the site, for demographic statistics, and to display appropriate individualized advertisements. Both privacy policies are very specific about their use of cookies and the MSN privacy policy covers web beacons as well.
  • Marketing preferences: Opt-in Newsletters and Featured Offers. As part of the Hotmail service you will receive 2 emails per month about technical service issues, new features, news about MSN products and services, etc. Occasionally you may receive emails with special offers. You can’t opt out of these messages.
  • Ads: Appear on several locations on the page. Those on the left tend to be for MSN features and Hotmail paid accounts. Other placements vary from page to page. Mostly for MSN but there are some from MSN advertising partners. Advertising is customized based on the information MSN collects.
  • Access POP (post office protocol) email accounts: Not available with a free account but is available with a paid account.
When setting up an account, you explicitly agree to receive targeted advertisements and periodic Member Letter emails from MSN.
Yahoo!
Email is just one of the many services that Yahoo! provides. You use the same ID and password for all your Yahoo! services including email.
  • Size of account: 100MB
  • Message size including attachments: 10MB
  • Virus scanning: Scans incoming attachments but doesn’t clean them. Free account doesn’t scan incoming email from POP accounts but paid account does.
  • Spam/junk mail control: Option to turn on SpamGuard. Choose to have it put into a bulk mail folder or deleted immediately. Choose how long messages stay in the bulk mail folder: 1 week, 2 weeks, or 1 month. You can also put up to 100 addresses in a blocked address list.
  • Message organizing: Can create folders. Also can create up to 15 filters to sort your incoming mail.
  • Privacy Policy: The privacy policy is very detailed about the information collected and what it is used for. It is very specific about cookies and web beacons.
  • Marketing preferences: Set these under Account Information after clicking on Mail Options. You will find a link to marketing preferences under Member Information. You can choose to receive special offers from selected third parties delivered by Yahoo!, special offers & marketing communications from Yahoo! (several different categories), and how Yahoo! can contact you.
  • Ads: Small ads on the left under the folders list are primarily text. On the home page you may see a large ad on the right. Other pages only show the ads on the left. Ads are targeted at you based on your personal information.
  • Access POP email accounts: Yes. Access up to 3 other external email accounts.
Mail.com
Mail.com allows you to choose the domain for your address. This means you don’t have to have @mail.com but can choose from a variety of domains such as a city, place, profession, interest, or many others. This is probably the only reason to choose this service because you are bombarded with ads: banners, animated, and pop-ups. In some instances a full screen ad is displayed that you must click through before you get to the selected message or page.
  • Size of account: 10MB
  • Message size including attachments: 4MB
  • Virus scanning: None
  • Spam/junk mail control: Uses spam blocking technology to delete spam before it gets into your in box. You can also put addresses on a Blocked Sender list.
  • Message organizing: You can create folders. Also can create up to 12 filters to sort your incoming mail.
  • Privacy Policy: Short and to the point. Describes how the site uses cookies.
  • Marketing preferences: Allows you to opt-out of the monthly newsletter. Allows you to opt-in to receive third-party mailings.
  • Ads: Lots and lots of ads. Annoying animated ads. Full screen ads that you have to click through before you can get to the page or message you selected. Uses demographic data that you provide to show you ads.
  • Access POP email accounts: Yes. Access up to 5 other external email accounts.
Gmail
Gmail is not yet available to the public. It’s in testing mode so expect changes before it’s available to all. Gmail works differently from the others. Instead of sorting messages, it groups messages by context—that is, a message and its replies are grouped together. Find a specific message by searching. Message contents are automatically scanned and then ads are displayed that match the contents.
  • Size of account: 1 GB (1000 MB)
  • Message size including attachments: No information currently.
  • Virus scanning: No information currently.
  • Spam/junk mail control: Uses a spam filter. You can report spam by clicking a button.
  • Message organizing: It groups messages by context. Allows you to label each message. Doesn’t use folders. Can create filters to have messages bypass the inbox or automatically label them.
  • Privacy Policy: Has a detailed privacy policy. Describes how cookies and log information are used.
  • Marketing preferences: No information currently.
  • Ads: The only ads displayed are relevant text ads determined by the content of the message. Ads are displayed similarly to ads in Google’s search results.
  • Access POP email accounts: Not currently but possibly in the future.
Concerns about privacy when using free email services
The fact that these services are supported by advertising raises concerns about personal privacy. Even though the recent privacy discussions have centered on Gmail, there are similar concerns with all these services.
To read more about some of these issues:
Is paying for your email worth it?
A free email account may be a good option if your only access to a computer is at work or public location. Even if you don’t have your own computer, a paid account usually provides you with reduced advertising, more message storage space, better tools such as virus cleaning and more control over spam filtering, and no promo lines at the bottom of your email. All of these services (except Gmail) offer paid versions.
If you have an account with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) you may be able to access your email from any computer even if you don’t normally access it through a browser. Most of the nationwide and many of the regional ISPs allow you to access your email on the web as well as downloading it to your own computer. If you happen to carry a computer with you, you may be able to access your ISP through a local phone number—even if you use a broadband connection at home. Visit the ISP support pages and see.
When it comes to email, going free or paying for a service is up to you. Streetwise advice here chimes with our recommendations on other topics—it’s smart to compare services and do your homework before you sign up.

So, what do you think?
If you find this review helpful, please pass the word to your friends. Also email me with any comments or suggestions.
Remar Sutton

A note about third-party links – By selecting links on this page, you will leave DCU's web site and enter a web site hosted by an organization separate from DCU. We encourage you to read and evaluate the privacy policy of any site you visit when you enter the site. While we strive to only link you to companies and organizations that we feel offer useful information, DCU does not directly support nor guarantee claims made by these sites.

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Digital Federal Credit Union
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