Tracking your own GMail account usage.

[jkuroda]

So I finally got around to reading the TechCrunch article on the document leaks at Twitter and came across this:

Not too long later there was obvious activity in the email [Google Mail] account from the account owner - incoming email read, replies sent and new messages drafted. The account owner never would have noticed that a complete stranger was

Comments

[erikred]

Further interesting point about TOR is that Google blocks access for certain high access IP addresses, so if you're on TOR and you're routing through a particularly overused TOR gate IP, Google will have nothing to do with you.

A little frustrating when you're just trying to protect your privacy.

That TOR tangent.

[jkuroda]

I tried to use TOR and its predecessors (who remembers ZKS' Freedom Network?) but ultimately gave up on it - it was slow to the point of being unusable and that was when places like Google weren't blocking TOR exit points for appearing like bots.

If I were a dissident who really had to worry about being able to use the network more anonymously out of concern for one's safety, I'd use it and put up with the challengers but I'm not.

I summed up to a friend the effect TOR had on tracking your own GMail account usage as "TOR makes it hard for others to know where you really are when you access your GMail account. It also makes it harder for you to know when others are accessing your GMail account, let alone where they are."