Why Google's data collection snafu could be good for Gmail
Google disclosed recently that its Street View project had inadvertently collected personal data, and the company has faced an onslaught of investigations from two U.S. federal agencies and several European governments. But in a strange irony, Google's blunder could reflect favorably on Gmail, the Mountain View, California, company's advertising-supported e-mail service. Google faces scrutiny, most recently from the Federal Communications Commission last week, for logging e-mails and passwords that its Street View cars found floating on unprotected Wi-Fi networks. But had those people been using Gmail, their data probably would have been safe. Gmail is the only major Web-based e-mail client that uses a high-security standard, called Secure Sockets Layer, by default at all times. It's been doing so since January and has offered the feature in some capacity since it launched in 2004. Last week, Microsoft added a full-session security option to Hotmail, its e-mail service