Dear Computer Lady,
Long, long time follower here – thanks for sharing your wonderful knowledge with us!
I have a Google email address that I use, and it bothers me that I will see ads reminiscent of sites I’ve looked up. That is invasive to me and I don’t like it because I handle my personal business through the site as well as fun stuff, etc.
I am looking at using Outlook.com, because I can have access to it over the Internet, but am not sure whether I’m trading one annoyance for another or not. Do you know whether Microsoft’s Outlook online tracks their customer’s information, and if so, can you suggest another good online email system that does not track that I could use?
It’s the principle of the thing – no one should have their nose in my email – that is sent from my home – unless I want them to know what information is in it.
Thanks for any help you can offer. Elaine
Dear Elaine,
I don’t personally use Outlook.com for email, although I do use Google for my email, however, I am pretty sure that Outlook.com generates revenue in the same way that Gmail and all the other free email programs out there do… through advertising.
When you and I sign up for just about any free online email address, we have to first click that we agree to the companies terms and conditions, and by clicking that we agree, we are giving them permission to have their nose in our email so that they can customize advertisements and generate revenue. That revenue in turn allows them to offer the email service without charging us for it.
Google does offer a premium version of their email that is supposed to be free of advertisements, but it has a yearly fee, and you have to have your own domain name in order to use it.
The only way to avoid this tracking is to purchase an email address, either from a local service provider, or register your own domain name and create your own email addresses.
Elizabeth
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Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
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