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Or, maybe: the extra information gleaned from reading your emails is just not that valuable. Not because they have this via other means, but its just not that

by roganp 9y ago

Or, maybe: the extra information gleaned from reading your emails is just not that valuable. Not because they have this via other means, but its just not that valuable, period - whether it comes from reading emails or scrutinizing your browser history. We like to imagine that if advertisers knew enough about us, they'd be able to direct our spending, but I think that is far from true.

piaste 9y ago
I'm pretty sure scrutinizing your browser history is still extremely valuable. But I find it quite plausible that email in particular has lost value as marketing information. People still use email for all kinds of business, of course. But their day-to-day personal activities, the kind that marketers care about ("I've taken up kayaking!", "I'm pregnant!") don't usually show up in emails any more, they get posted on social media.
- gub09 9y ago
  This makes sense. Possibly the value of increased corporate sales of G Suite is worth more than the loss of the information gained from reading diminishing numbers of personal emails, as people turn more and more to social media and phone apps for personal communication.
jodrellblank 9y ago
We like to imagine that if advertisers knew enough about us, they'd be able to direct our spending. Speak for yourself, I don't like to imagine that at all.
hedora 9y ago
The corporate profile they have on the company I work for must go into unthinkable detail. If they were announcing no tracking for work accounts across their entire suite of products, this would be a big deal. As it is, they're presumably still reading our gdocs, address books, calendars, hangouts, search histories and broswing histories, and geolocations/third party app usage for all the android users. Email data is white noise compared to this. I'd wonder how IT could be so stupid to put up with this if Microsoft hadn't also made pervasive surveillance mandatory.
freshhawk 9y ago
> We like to imagine that if advertisers knew enough about us, they'd be able to direct our spending, but I think that is far from true. So you haven't worked in an industry where you had that data and tried it then? In my experience you are completely, utterly wrong.

by roganp 9y ago

piaste 9y ago

I'm pretty sure scrutinizing your browser history is still extremely valuable. But I find it quite plausible that email in particular has lost value as marketing information. People still use email for all kinds of business, of course. But their day-to-day personal activities, the kind that marketers care about ("I've taken up kayaking!", "I'm pregnant!") don't usually show up in emails any more, they get posted on social media.

gub09 9y ago
This makes sense. Possibly the value of increased corporate sales of G Suite is worth more than the loss of the information gained from reading diminishing numbers of personal emails, as people turn more and more to social media and phone apps for personal communication.

jodrellblank 9y ago

We like to imagine that if advertisers knew enough about us, they'd be able to direct our spending. Speak for yourself, I don't like to imagine that at all.

hedora 9y ago

The corporate profile they have on the company I work for must go into unthinkable detail. If they were announcing no tracking for work accounts across their entire suite of products, this would be a big deal. As it is, they're presumably still reading our gdocs, address books, calendars, hangouts, search histories and broswing histories, and geolocations/third party app usage for all the android users. Email data is white noise compared to this. I'd wonder how IT could be so stupid to put up with this if Microsoft hadn't also made pervasive surveillance mandatory.

freshhawk 9y ago

> We like to imagine that if advertisers knew enough about us, they'd be able to direct our spending, but I think that is far from true. So you haven't worked in an industry where you had that data and tried it then? In my experience you are completely, utterly wrong.