[wplug] OT: Intrusive changes to gMail and GCal

[Douglas Green]

Hi group-

Just a heads up for anyone who uses Google Mail and Calendar- it now gathers possible "invites" or "meeting requests" and inserts them in your calendar By Default. You have the options to decline or approve the meeting requests. Beware that your response will be emailed back to the originator of the email!!! Further, it tracks the responses from other people that were CC'd on the email and shows their responses to everyone. 

I find this "convenience" to be unwelcome and intrusive. The default behavior can be modified in the Settings, but you gotta dig for it.  

I bring this to your attention based on personal experience- I just deleted an errant meeting from my calendar (which I had not put there) and it sent an email out (to my boss, thanks for that, google) stating that I "declined the meeting" and listed a big "X" next to my name on a list of participants, along with their status- all people who were CCd on the email were included (all of my coworkers). Not Cool! Nothing like a little public shaming to go with the office holiday party. 

I could go on and on about why I find this objectionable, but I won't waste your time- this is just an informational email if you, like me, had no idea about this "feature". Google, much like Facebook has historically done, has changed their handling of your private information with the default behavior being (in my case) the least acceptable alternative. 

-D