Socially Responsible Email Account?

[guestmama9911]

Due to the unethical practices of Yahoo! and Google in China and other countries, I would like to switch to a different online email account. Any suggestions for a good free account with minimal reasons to be ashamed for using them?

[DuckyTate]

www.9y.com

[guestmama9911]

That is awesome. I also visited their technology source, www.hushmail.com, and I am impressed with their anti-government-snooping capabilities. Thank you! Just what I wanted.

[Sustainer]

www.care2.com
www.planet-save.com

[chasmyn]

Originally Posted by alisaterry

Due to the unethical practices of Yahoo! and Google in China and other countries, I would like to switch to a different online email account. Any suggestions for a good free account with minimal reasons to be ashamed for using them?

What are the practices? I didn't know.

[guestmama9911]

Wow, now that I've visited Care2, it's a tough decision. Environmental email with a neat domain name like animail.com, or the encripted email that my government can't spy on? Thank you for the suggestions, ladies, these are great!

[guestmama9911]

Originally Posted by chasmyn

What are the practices? I didn't know.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/4221538.stm

From the article:

The media organisation accused Yahoo of providing Chinese investigating organs with information that helped link Shi Tao's personal e-mail account and the text of the message to his computer.

"We already knew that Yahoo! collaborates enthusiastically with the Chinese regime in questions of censorship, and now we know it is a Chinese police informant as well," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.

Western internet companies have regularly been criticised for agreeing to China's strict rules governing the internet, which Communist Party leaders fear could be a tool to spread dissent.

Microsoft was criticised in June for censoring what bloggers write.

The companies say they have to abide by local regulations, and point out that since China is set to be the world's biggest internet market, they cannot ignore it.

"Microsoft works to bring our technology to people around the world to help them realise their full potential," said a Microsoft spokesperson.

"Like other global organisations we must abide by the laws, regulations and norms of each country in which we operate."

Earlier this month Yahoo paid $1bn (£556m) for a stake in China's biggest e-commerce firm, Alibaba.com.

From the Christian Science Monitor

From the article:

A US House of Representatives panel will look into high-profile cases where Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo worked with China to restrict access to material or reveal the identity of users with dissident postings. Cisco is also implicated. But lawmakers eager to end such cooperation may find it hard to do so, at least in Yahoo's case.A deal in October may insulate the Internet giant. Because it gave up a majority stake of its China service to a Chinese company, Yahoo argues that decisions about cooperating with Chinese officials lie with that company, which has obligations to obey Beijing, not Washington.

That move has human rights activists fuming, especially after last week, when Paris-based watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RWB) charged Yahoo with helping authorities in 2003 to capture Li Zhi, an anticorruption reformer now serving an eight-year prison term. Yahoo says the case is under investigation and declined further comment.

Some in Congress are fuming about the practice. "It's like turning Anne Frank over to the Nazis," says Rep. Christopher Smith (R) of New Jersey, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations, one of two subcommittees jointly holding Wednesday's hearings. One of his suggestions: Require companies to locate e-mail servers outside countries deemed repressive by the State Department.

Amnesty Int'l USA

From the article:

Yahoo!’s assistance to the Chinese Government in sentencing Shi Tao and allegedly, Li Zhi, is deeply troubling, but not surprising given the company has signed China’s Public Pledge on Self-Discipline for the Internet Industry, effectively agreeing to implement China’s draconian system of censorship and control.

Companies must respect human rights, wherever they operate, and Yahoo! (YHOO) should urgently give adequate consideration to the human rights implications of its investments. In a letter mailed last November, Amnesty International raised our concerns with Yahoo! (YHOO) about internet censorship in China generally and the case of Shi Tao in particular. We received a response from them which reads, in part:

“The choice in China or other countries is not whether to comply with law enforcement demands for information. Rather, the choice is whether or not to remain in a country. We balance the requirement to comply with laws that are not necessarily consistent with our own values against our strong belief that active involvement in China contributes to the continued modernization of the country * as well as a benefit to Chinese citizens * through the advancement of communications, commerce and access to information.”

In fact, Yahoo! (YHOO) and other IT companies operating in China have far more than the two choices offered above, several of which were laid out explicitly in our letter to them, and in subsequent testimony before the Human Rights Caucus of the US Congress on February 1, 2006. So far we have no evidence to suggest that Yahoo! (YHOO) has made the most basic attempts to ensure that they were operating according to international standards.

[DuckyTate]

Originally Posted by alisaterry

That is awesome. I also visited their technology source, www.hushmail.com, and I am impressed with their anti-government-snooping capabilities. Thank you! Just what I wanted.

Glad you like it there!
I hope you enjoy your new email and that many others here see it also!

[the sunshine]

What is care2 affiliated with? I went to the site and it welcomed me with an old username that I remember using ages ago, but I can't remember what for. That's kind of creepy.

[guestmama9911]

Yeah, they had me already registered, too, but they host petitions for various organizations, so if you have ever signed a petition in the last few years, that might be why.

I was a bit disturbed to find out their search engine is run by Google, when they promote themselves as being pro-human rights and free speech. You can start your own petition on their website, somaybe I'll start an anti-google one.