RE: Does 'Delete forever' in Gmail really mean it?
It would be good to get clear technical specifications from google on what 'delete forever' does mean, and I will be following your discovery closely. I would like to see that 'delete forever' means that no part of the email (including associated metadata) can be retrieved from any system or storage device. It should mean that no trace of the email having ever existed could be recovered by any means. Government agencies that dispose (destroy) digital information legitimately under legislated and approved disposal authorities need to destroy the email, but are required to keep the associated metadata as part of the audit trail to show the record existed, and when and what authority the public record was destroyed under. However, in the case of gmail and other email account providers, I would expect as a consumer that the email and all associated metadata was unrecoverable by any means for now and in the future.
