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The bigger question is why Google is reading and extracting this data from my email id? I don't feel safe and secure. God knows what else they are reading from

The bigger question is why Google is reading and extracting this data from my email id? I don't feel safe and secure. God knows what else they are reading from my mailbox.

insomniacity 8y ago
Unfortunately that's pretty much the deal with a free gmail account. If you don't want them to do it, pay for a business account (maybe?) or pay for an account somewhere else. Mining your email for keywords and selling you things has been part of their business for a long time. Knowing what you've actually bought is just part of that.
zebracanevra 8y ago
When I purchase a product, Google can track that package if it detects tracking info. When I book a flight, Google notifies me when the flight is leaving, providing suggestions about when to leave my house in order to make it. All of these things can be done from reading your email. For someone invested in the Google ecosystem, this is a nice and seamless integration that helps me in my life. That is why they are extracing data from your mail.
- natechols 8y ago
  It has been so blindingly obvious that they do this for so long that I'm honestly shocked that anyone is even surprised, let alone offended.
Bjartr 8y ago
I've appreciated at times that they do this for things like delivery tracking numbers. I just stick "my orders" in google and it gives me a listing including any updated delivery statuses.
cbhl 8y ago
(disclaimer: My opinions are solely my own and not that of my employer.) If you are a merchant, there are standards for sending package/order information in a machine-readable way in email: https://developers.google.com/gmail/markup/overview https://developers.google.com/gmail/markup/overview The purpose is to provide personalized useful features like package tracking. When logged in, you can search for something like "my packages" or "where are my packages". This is a feature that users expect from other assistants (e.g. Amazon Alexa) and email clients (e.g. Outlook). https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/1710607 https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/1710607 The categories that are being extracted for personalized search should be fairly limited (primarily hotels, flights, online purchases). If you don't feel safe or secure using Google products, you should strongly consider switching away. I personally would suggest Outlook.com, but you could also self-host or use an indie hosting provider like FastMail. (Most product folks make trade-offs for the average person. There are some great security tech coming out of Google (Security Keys, Chromebooks/Chrome OS) but a lot of the security assumes at least moderate trust in Google.)
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
rue 8y ago
They’re reading everything. It says so in the TOS.

The bigger question is why Google is reading and extracting this data from my email id? I don't feel safe and secure. God knows what else they are reading from my mailbox.

insomniacity 8y ago

Unfortunately that's pretty much the deal with a free gmail account. If you don't want them to do it, pay for a business account (maybe?) or pay for an account somewhere else. Mining your email for keywords and selling you things has been part of their business for a long time. Knowing what you've actually bought is just part of that.

zebracanevra 8y ago

When I purchase a product, Google can track that package if it detects tracking info. When I book a flight, Google notifies me when the flight is leaving, providing suggestions about when to leave my house in order to make it. All of these things can be done from reading your email. For someone invested in the Google ecosystem, this is a nice and seamless integration that helps me in my life. That is why they are extracing data from your mail.

natechols 8y ago
It has been so blindingly obvious that they do this for so long that I'm honestly shocked that anyone is even surprised, let alone offended.

Bjartr 8y ago

I've appreciated at times that they do this for things like delivery tracking numbers. I just stick "my orders" in google and it gives me a listing including any updated delivery statuses.

cbhl 8y ago

(disclaimer: My opinions are solely my own and not that of my employer.) If you are a merchant, there are standards for sending package/order information in a machine-readable way in email: https://developers.google.com/gmail/markup/overview https://developers.google.com/gmail/markup/overview The purpose is to provide personalized useful features like package tracking. When logged in, you can search for something like "my packages" or "where are my packages". This is a feature that users expect from other assistants (e.g. Amazon Alexa) and email clients (e.g. Outlook). https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/1710607 https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/1710607 The categories that are being extracted for personalized search should be fairly limited (primarily hotels, flights, online purchases). If you don't feel safe or secure using Google products, you should strongly consider switching away. I personally would suggest Outlook.com, but you could also self-host or use an indie hosting provider like FastMail. (Most product folks make trade-offs for the average person. There are some great security tech coming out of Google (Security Keys, Chromebooks/Chrome OS) but a lot of the security assumes at least moderate trust in Google.)

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

rue 8y ago

They’re reading everything. It says so in the TOS.