J said:
... the other side wanted to keep it for "privacy" (... their
argument was that they are not preserved forever in the web archive).
The argument on the other side was based on the availability more than the permanence of the Messages section on the web. That is, while a member may keep copies of their email messages indefinitely, those copies are generally not available to others.
The content of the group's Messages section, on the other hand, can be read and copied by any member, including any people of ill intent who may gain admission. This is less a concern in groups that have restricted membership and private archives, depending on how careful the moderators are about accepting new members, but a much larger concern in groups with open membership.
And it is of great concern in groups with public archives - such as GMF and beta - our messages are open to Google, Bing, Duck-Duck-Go, and other search engines, as well as to the web crawlers of every spammer and other kind of crook world-wide.
Shal
Shal Farley