Free e-mail providers differ on privacy issues

Fortune magazine has discovered that Yahoo! and Gmail are good for their promise that your e-mail account and your contacts are your private property. Meanwhile, MSN's HotMail and MSN Messenger take the opposite position. They argue that anything you do online belongs to them, including your contacts list. So you may want to consider firing MSN for e-mail and IM purposes. On a related note, your employer owns everything if you use Outlook at work. So Clark says that you obviously shouldn't use your work account to job-hunt or harsh on the boss! Finally, beware of unsolicited Valentine's Day e-cards that may contain viruses that turn your computer into a bot. If you don't know the sender, do not open that e-card.