If you think that the mails you have seen sending or forwarding e-mails using Yahoo! of Gmail or other free Web-based mail cannot be traced, think again. Each and every mail can be tracked back and you could in a world of hurt if you have forwarded sensitive stuff, or vulgar stuff for that matter.

The following case should illustrate just how careful you need to be with your e-mailing habits. Admittedly this has happened, is happening, in the United States, but it is equally germane anywhere around the world.

First, some quick facts of the case: A former employee, let’s call him Mr. X, of Source Media, which publishes financial market information, has been arrested and charged for reading confidential e-mails about pending personnel moves and for sending e-mail messages to the affected employees, tipping them off that their jobs were in jeopardy.

Mr X had been director of information technology at Source Media, which employs over 1,000 people, between 1998 and 2003, when he was fired. In his capacity as IT director, Mr X had access to the passwords for the e-mail accounts of Source Media employees. Three years after he lost his job, in August and September of this year, two employees of Source Media got mails from a free Web-based e-mail service alerting them that they might be losing their jobs.

According to the United States attorney for the southern district of New York, "Before these anonymous e-mails were sent, these employees had been the subject of e-mail messages among senior Source Media employees discussing their employment status and possible termination".

So, how did law enforcement officials nab the alleged offender. Well, they got him using the Internet protocol address, which is a unique numerical address assigned to a particular computer that is connected to the Internet during a given session.

"Based on technical data logs that contain identification information about computers that access Source Media’s computer network over the internet, records from the company that provided cable modem service to the former employee, records from Yahoo!, and other information, the alleged offender was identified both as the individual who hacked into Source Media’s e-mail network on various occasions prior to the sending of the anonymous Yahoo! e-mails and as the user of the Yahoo! e-mail account from where the e-mails originated", the attorney said. If convicted, Mr X faces a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

Moral of the story: Be careful about what you write in your e-mails, especially from free Web-based services.

Alrighty, folks, let’s talk some numbers today. Numbers in one particular segment of the ICT industry-Bluetooth. Now, Bluetooth, is the technology that enables devices to communicate with each other wirelessly.

Within a short radius, about 10 metres, of course. Like, for example, if you have a Bluetooth-enabled phone, you can send the pictures of your last holiday to your friends, who might or might not welcome such pictures. The mobile service operators are not enthusiastic about Bluetooth because when two handsets communicate with each other wirelessly, the companies don’t get paid.

But consumers appear to have taken Bluetooth products enthusiastically, and that’s where the numbers come in. According to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, there is now an installed base of one billion (100 crore) Bluetooth products. And this gives consumers more than five billion ways to use the global wireless standard. The one-billion-mark was crossed last week, Bluetooth SIG says, citing shipment information from ABI Research. Weekly shipments of the wireless devices continue at a pace of 12 million per week.

"To put this number in perspective, one billion is greater than the number of PC users in the world and equal to the number of mobile phones shipped this year", says Dr Michael Foley, executive director, Bluetooth SIG.

"Reaching the one billion milestone is a huge win for the Bluetooth industry and we want to congratulate and thank our 6,000 member companies whose innovation and products got us here", Dr Foley says. There’s more. These are the same companies, he says, who, along with new members, will drive Bluetooth SIG towards its next goal of shipping two billion devices in one year in 2010.

Cellular handsets continue to dominate shipment numbers, along with audio headsets. Stereo headsets, vehicles, media players, notebooks/PCs, and mice/keyboard devices also contribute to shipment numbers. Medical devices, gaming devices, camcorders, projectors and digital cameras are expected to grow in volume after the introduction of the high-speed Bluetooth specification in 2007.

"One change in the marketplace we see really driving adoption of Bluetooth stereo headsets and contributing to that next billion devices is the growth of mobile TV", said Yoram Solomon, director of strategic marketing and industry relations, Texas Instruments, and president of the Mobile DTV Alliance. "It’s pretty simple — people want good quality sound when watching TV and the speaker built into mobile phones isn’t going to cut it. Bluetooth stereo headsets provide the key quality component to the mobile TV experience".