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> We do not scan or read your Gmail messages to show you ads. That's laughable - When Gmail was launched, it advertised that it would show you "relevant" text

> We do not scan or read your Gmail messages to show you ads. That's laughable - When Gmail was launched, it advertised that it would show you "relevant" text ads based on your email! That was one of its features in an era of intrusive banner and pop-up ads in many of the free email services available in the past. While the article may have a point about Alexa and Google Cloud, Gmail cannot be clubbed with it as Gmail does have 2 viable business model - advertisements and subscriptions. Moreover, it is a virtual goldmine of personal data for any advertising platform with your banking statements, your online purchases, your work emails, your personal correspondences, your contacts etc. Anybody who believes Google isn't mining this data is living in a fool's paradise. Unless a law explicitly forbids it, with severe penalties, corporations like Google will absolutely use this data to make money - just look at the fines Google faces around the world for violating the privacy of its users.

knorker 4y ago
There are laws against lying about it. So if you believe they are scanning your email but saying they're not, then you have a slam dunk case to get rich by suing them. Edit: Hell, Google can't keep a secret anymore without leaking it. If what you're saying were true then any employee working on the pipelines and ad targeting would easily get the evidence themselves, and sue Google. Google pays well, but not as well as winning a lawsuit.
- webmobdev 4y ago
  And there are loopholes to get around it. A simple example is when other services are automatically enabled in Gmail like "personalisation", "spam detection", "priority inbox" or sorting promotional emails. All of these require scanning emails and harvesting keywords from it, for which you implicitly give permission. All this data also goes into the personal profile that Google creates for you. The ads are then served from your personal profile. So legally Google is not serving ads after "scanning your email". Why do you think you have to agree to separate terms and conditions privacy policies - Google, Gmail, Photo etc.? (This is not unique to Google. Apple also uses similar tactics - every Apple app now tells you that your data will be used for personalised ads. Services within that will have its own data collection policies "to improve service". Every bullshit "privacy" protection needs you to allow even more invasive data collection to "protect" you. And everything is "opt-in" by default (and praise the lord if you can find an "opt-out" settings at all).
  - knorker 4y ago
    I was merely objecting to people who claim that Google is lying. I have not read the ToS lately, so I don't actually know if email contents make it to your profile. All I can do is assume that unless they say that it doesn't, then it probably does. But if they do say that it doesn't, then I'm pretty sure it doesn't. Because especially now with GDPR they'd be completely fucked if that were not true. Max penalty 4% of global revenue per instance, or whatever it is. Google even allows you to opt out of personalized ads. Not hard to find.
Kbelicius 4y ago
IIRC they used to scan/read emails but some short time before GDPR came in to effect they changed that. So somewhere in 2017 or early 2018.
- webmobdev 4y ago
  Laws and regulations are indeed the only way to prevent it. But note that GDPR applies only to EU. So even if Google is complying (and not using loopholes to avoid it) those of us who are not Europeans are still screwed. (As I pointed, the 100's of millions of dollar fines that Google is facing worldwide for its abusive practices also indicate that they are willing to violate the law / regulation if it is still profitable to do so).

knorker 4y ago

There are laws against lying about it. So if you believe they are scanning your email but saying they're not, then you have a slam dunk case to get rich by suing them. Edit: Hell, Google can't keep a secret anymore without leaking it. If what you're saying were true then any employee working on the pipelines and ad targeting would easily get the evidence themselves, and sue Google. Google pays well, but not as well as winning a lawsuit.

webmobdev 4y ago
And there are loopholes to get around it. A simple example is when other services are automatically enabled in Gmail like "personalisation", "spam detection", "priority inbox" or sorting promotional emails. All of these require scanning emails and harvesting keywords from it, for which you implicitly give permission. All this data also goes into the personal profile that Google creates for you. The ads are then served from your personal profile. So legally Google is not serving ads after "scanning your email". Why do you think you have to agree to separate terms and conditions privacy policies - Google, Gmail, Photo etc.? (This is not unique to Google. Apple also uses similar tactics - every Apple app now tells you that your data will be used for personalised ads. Services within that will have its own data collection policies "to improve service". Every bullshit "privacy" protection needs you to allow even more invasive data collection to "protect" you. And everything is "opt-in" by default (and praise the lord if you can find an "opt-out" settings at all).
- knorker 4y ago
  I was merely objecting to people who claim that Google is lying. I have not read the ToS lately, so I don't actually know if email contents make it to your profile. All I can do is assume that unless they say that it doesn't, then it probably does. But if they do say that it doesn't, then I'm pretty sure it doesn't. Because especially now with GDPR they'd be completely fucked if that were not true. Max penalty 4% of global revenue per instance, or whatever it is. Google even allows you to opt out of personalized ads. Not hard to find.

Kbelicius 4y ago

IIRC they used to scan/read emails but some short time before GDPR came in to effect they changed that. So somewhere in 2017 or early 2018.

webmobdev 4y ago
Laws and regulations are indeed the only way to prevent it. But note that GDPR applies only to EU. So even if Google is complying (and not using loopholes to avoid it) those of us who are not Europeans are still screwed. (As I pointed, the 100's of millions of dollar fines that Google is facing worldwide for its abusive practices also indicate that they are willing to violate the law / regulation if it is still profitable to do so).