Google Bans Gmail Account Profiteering

Last week, Google modified Gmail's policy by adding a new item to the prohibited list. Users may not "sell, trade, resell, or otherwise exploit for any unauthorized commercial purpose or transfer any Gmail account."

The modification is a move to stop the sometimes-lucrative after-market of Gmail accounts, which have been difficult to obtain. Google is still testing the service and limits the number of new-user "invitations" it allows current users to give away.

The news must not have reached eBay, however, since a quick search Friday for "Gmail" found nearly 2,000 ongoing auctions, with prices ranging from $.01 to $40 for "northcarolinatarheals@gmail.com".

Penalties include warnings, or suspensions or terminations of a user's Gmail account.

Bartering invitations, however, is still permitted as long as money doesn't change hands. A cottage industry spawned by gmailswap.com puts eager owners of invitations in contact with the desperate, who will do seemingly anything to get a Gmail account.

A gmailswap.com poster claiming to be a 23-year-old, "hot enough" woman, for instance, promised to act out any episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in exchange for an account.

Gmail started a race for more storage space among free Web e-mail providers when it was announced in April, and has spurred portals such as Yahoo, Lycos, and MSN to either match Gmail's 1GB allowance or drastically increase the amount they offer.

It's also drawn the ire of privacy advocates for its plan to scan incoming mail with automated bots to deliver targeted ads. California's state Senate, for instance, has passed a bill which would limit how Google uses any information it obtains by scanning Gmail messages.

For more on Gmail, see the Google site.

This story courtesy of TechWeb.