www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

I was looking in my account, and found about old 8000 emails and 900 spam emails.

A. I had know idea they kept all emails, even after they were delivered.

B. Why would they.

C. I got a message when I deleted the lot saying why delete when you have such a large online store.

D. Do they use the information in the store, for marketing purposes for example.

E. Would other people read my emails, and why.

F. should they tell punters they are hanging on to a copy.

Do you use Virgin Media as your main email account but use a third party email software you probably havent set it to delete the emails off the server as it retrieves them.

Northwales4u is right. If you use Thunderbird go to Tools -> Account Settings -> Server Settings and untick "Leave messages on server"

It isn't ticked.

Yes I use Thunderbird.

From the VM website:

The new Virgin Media Mail service allows you to control whether copies of your messages are stored on the server, or deleted when they are downloaded using your e-mail software (e.g., Outlook Express).
Important: the message storage behaviour is no longer determined by the settings in your e-mail software, i.e., the settings on the Virgin Media Mail site override those in your e-mail software. This is a change to the way that message storage rules have worked previously.
Note that this information applies only to accounts that are on our new Virgin Media Mail service.
You can choose whichever message storage option suits you best by doing to the following.
1.Log in to Virgin Media Mail (use the Email link in the top-right of the virginmedia.com site).
2.Click Settings and then click Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
3.In the POP Download section, look for the dropdown menu option next to When messages are accessed with POP. This presents you with three options:
Keep Virgin Media Mail's copy in the Inbox (default) – choose this option to keep copies of your messages on the server, even after you've downloaded them using your e-mail software.
Archive Virgin Media Mail's copy – choose this option to keep copies of your messages on the server, even after you've downloaded them using your e-mail software, and to place those messages in the archive so that they are viewable in your All Mail folder rather than the Inbox.
Delete Virgin Media Mail's copy – choose this option to remove copies of your messages from the server as soon as you've downloaded them using your e-mail software.

Thanks Rich I'll look at that when I get time.

How about internet activities, like 24 hours a day on UHM

One one of my servers I used to have an IMAP email account, that was a pain in the arse as it kept a copy of all emails on the server.

UHM: thats because it doesn't download your emails as such, it gives you online access to your email account, so if you hit delete in your mail client it gets deleted from the server, also means you can access your email past and present from any computer anywhere, useful if your hard drive crashes, especially if they are commercial emails.

IMAP on the whole is my preference, I find POP can be glitchy and I personally dislike having my email stored locally, (If I wanted that I would run my own email server) especially when my website tends to keep backups on a regular basis (Package I use for the wife's site has a backup taken everyday as part of the contract.