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Google knows the unencrypted content of every email sent through its servers and has developed sophisticated technology to identify with great accuracy the subj

by sidlls 9y ago

Google knows the unencrypted content of every email sent through its servers and has developed sophisticated technology to identify with great accuracy the subject matter and interests of the parties to the email for the purposes of serving them ad content which they sell space for to advertisers. They know, and they sell ads for profit based on that knowledge.

joefkelley 9y ago
This is no longer the case. No email data is used for any ad targeting. But yeah, similarly useful technology exists. I don't know if it's in use at all in order to fight abuse like this. Source: https://blog.google/products/gmail/g-suite-gains-traction-in-the-enterprise-g-suites-gmail-and-consumer-gmail-to-more-closely-align/ https://blog.google/products/gmail/g-suite-gains-traction-in... (and I work on Gmail ads).
- oneshot908 9y ago
  So since apparently your employers are going through people's Google Drive accounts and removing pornographic content: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9kgwnp/porn-on-google-drive-error https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9kgwnp/porn-on-go... Doesn't that mean you are now on the hook for enabling sex trafficking with SESTA if a gmail account was used? Or is there a loophole wherein if you promise extra double hard not to look at said content, you're not liable? But in that case, why are you guys deleting teh p0rnz?
  - joefkelley 9y ago
    It's not clear to me how those two topics are related. If it's about whether Google "knowingly" enabled sex trafficking, then it seems like a pretty simple argument is "sure, we knew about porn, but we didn't know about the sex trafficking" is a pretty reasonable defense. Also, I don't know, I just work here.
- DrScump 9y ago
  No email data is used for any ad targeting I know they claim that, but why do all clickable links in Gmail have google.com wrappers that are forwarding links to the desired destination?

by sidlls 9y ago

joefkelley 9y ago

This is no longer the case. No email data is used for any ad targeting. But yeah, similarly useful technology exists. I don't know if it's in use at all in order to fight abuse like this. Source: https://blog.google/products/gmail/g-suite-gains-traction-in-the-enterprise-g-suites-gmail-and-consumer-gmail-to-more-closely-align/ https://blog.google/products/gmail/g-suite-gains-traction-in... (and I work on Gmail ads).

oneshot908 9y ago
So since apparently your employers are going through people's Google Drive accounts and removing pornographic content: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9kgwnp/porn-on-google-drive-error https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9kgwnp/porn-on-go... Doesn't that mean you are now on the hook for enabling sex trafficking with SESTA if a gmail account was used? Or is there a loophole wherein if you promise extra double hard not to look at said content, you're not liable? But in that case, why are you guys deleting teh p0rnz?
- joefkelley 9y ago
  It's not clear to me how those two topics are related. If it's about whether Google "knowingly" enabled sex trafficking, then it seems like a pretty simple argument is "sure, we knew about porn, but we didn't know about the sex trafficking" is a pretty reasonable defense. Also, I don't know, I just work here.
DrScump 9y ago
No email data is used for any ad targeting I know they claim that, but why do all clickable links in Gmail have google.com wrappers that are forwarding links to the desired destination?