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amac's profile
Alexander Macgillivray
Alexander Macgillivray
Alexander Macgillivray
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@amac

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Alexander MacgillivrayVerified account

@amac

Board @ http://Datasociety.net , http://CreativeCommons.org  & http://Alloy.us . Helping launch http://TSPA.info . Former Dep US CTO, Twitter & Google. Tinkerer of code, law & more. Curious.

bricoleur.org
Joined November 2007

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    1. Alexander Macgillivray‏Verified account @amac 1 Apr 2019

      LESSONS: Make user testing wide + diverse, understand that true but unknown things don't make precedent & don't launch a privacy policy instead of a product. 3.3/

      1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes
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    2. Alexander Macgillivray‏Verified account @amac 1 Apr 2019

      Arming your critics with facts is WAY better than having them create their own. Gmail launched on April 1. It had been incubating at Google for a while but didn't get much external exposure before April 1. Then, when it launched, it was mostly unavailable. 4.1/

      1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
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    3. Alexander Macgillivray‏Verified account @amac 1 Apr 2019

      That meant that the first + second wave of press reports that correctly identified the advertising and issues associated with it as novel, couldn't find non-googlers to comment who knew what we had actually launched. 4.2/

      1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
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    4. Alexander Macgillivray‏Verified account @amac 1 Apr 2019

      Some responded with a "we'll see + comment when we know" but many just made assumptions about how it worked + what it did & reacted to that. That did not go well. 4.3/

      1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
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    5. Alexander Macgillivray‏Verified account @amac 1 Apr 2019

      Eventually we gave any privacy advocate who would take them accounts + briefings so they could see Gmail for themselves. That didn't end conversation because there was/is a real conversation to be had about products like Gmail, BUT it radically improved the discourse. 4.4/

      1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
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    6. Alexander Macgillivray‏Verified account @amac 1 Apr 2019

      LESSON: Give pre-briefings to critical people & experts. Use the outcome of those pre-briefings to improve the product. Understand that arming your "enemies" so they are ready to have a conversation about the facts is helpful. (+ they are not your enemies). 4.5/

      1 reply 2 retweets 6 likes
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    7. Alexander Macgillivray‏Verified account @amac 1 Apr 2019

      I focused a bunch on how much Gmail was hated on launch. That's a bit unfair, mostly reviews were really positive but for a flavor of the other side, here is a good early timeline: https://www.privacyrights.org/blog/googles-new-email-service-gmail-under-fire-privacy-concerns-possible-wiretap-law-violations … 5.1/

      1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
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    8. Alexander Macgillivray‏Verified account @amac 1 Apr 2019

      LESSON (?): I think the lesson there is to listen to the critics but also think about whether their criticism causes you to question the ethical and legal principles that informed your launch. If you still believe in the value it, keep going. 5.2/

      1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
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    9. Alexander Macgillivray‏Verified account @amac 1 Apr 2019

      Oh, and HIRE WELL. We hired @nicolewong around that time and she took over as product counsel for Gmail which was a big part of why this story ended so well (+many others). 6/

      1 reply 0 retweets 15 likes
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    10. Alexander Macgillivray‏Verified account @amac 1 Apr 2019

      LESSON: There is always room for a much better product. Web email was a solved, finished product category when Gmail came out. I'm not positive this is as easy now, but Gmail rapidly grew in spite of the industry stability because it was a whole lot better. 7/

      1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
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      Alexander Macgillivray‏Verified account @amac 1 Apr 2019

      LESSON: Don't launch on April Fools' Day I still can't tell whether Sergey's decision to launch on April 1 was crazy brilliant or not. I think it was not effective because it caused a bunch of articles questioning whether we were in fact launching email, but who knows. 8/

      6:34 AM - 1 Apr 2019
      • 14 Likes
      • Rick Klau Matthew McAllister Erin Fors Smerity Carolyn Penner ramsey homsany Beth Carpenter Bradley Horowitz
      2 replies 0 retweets 14 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. Alexander Macgillivray‏Verified account @amac 1 Apr 2019

          Another non-standard decision on launch was that we did not give away the user's IP address in the message. Yahoo Mail, for example, would include the sender's personal IP in the headers of the email when sending. Users didn't know this & it exposed some identities. 9.1/

          1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
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        3. Alexander Macgillivray‏Verified account @amac 1 Apr 2019

          Not sending user IP w/ email was very good for privacy but was controversial because many spam systems used it. At one point the entire @gmail was almost spam-blackholed. Which would have been bad. We held our ground (thanks to @paultoo) but it was a hairy situation. 9.2/

          1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
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        4. Alexander Macgillivray‏Verified account @amac 1 Apr 2019

          LESSON: Consider users' interests, especially ones that are hard to understand. Stand up for your principles, including when it is risky. Listen to founders.* *all this can also go too far. 9.3/

          1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes
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        5. Alexander Macgillivray‏Verified account @amac 1 Apr 2019

          PS I was the product counsel for @Gmail pre-launch. That means I was the lawyer responsible for a bunch of its legal decisions, incl. whether scanning email for ads was legal, writing its privacy policy & terms + a bunch more. So, take all this a grain of salt / that in mind.

          1 reply 0 retweets 9 likes
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        6. End of conversation
        1. Alexander Macgillivray‏Verified account @amac 1 Apr 2019

          Was launching #GMail on April Fools's Day a good idea?

          1 reply 1 retweet 0 likes
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