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Could someone explain why this is so bad? I see no privacy problems - people still can't access your data without logging in to your email.
by duaneb 14y ago
Could someone explain why this is so bad? I see no privacy problems - people still can't access your data without logging in to your email.
- shock-value 14y agoPersonally, I use search all the time while I'm around other people or in a public place, and it would be a bit jarring to suddenly see private emails alongside my results at these times. This isn't a privacy issue per se, but it's just unexpected and I could see it leading to awkward situations for some people (e.g. when someone has someone else run a quick search for him and private or embarrassing emails show up). If it's strictly opt-in then I don't see a problem.
- ariwilson 14y agoIt doesn't look like it shows the actual content of e-mails unless you search for something like "confirmation gmail". "confirmation" just gets you the "Messages from..." box which you have to click to open.
- Matt_Cutts 14y agoThat's right. The matches from Gmail are collapsed unless you specifically indicate intent with search keywords like "gmail" or "email."
- mixmax 14y agoThis is a disaster waiting to happen. Non-tech users (probably 95% of Googles customers) have no idea how this happens. It's not immediately obvious to a non-tech person how your personal e-mails suddenly get blended into search results on another page. This will both freak people out and it will invade their privacy. I really hope this will be opt-in.
- Matt_Cutts 14y agoThis is something that you have to request at http://g.co/searchtrial http://g.co/searchtrial , and I think we'll learn a lot from seeing how people interact with the feature and what feedback they provide.
- sp332 14y agoIt's a privacy issue because if anyone uses my computer to do a simple Google search to show me something, they'll see content from my emails.
- duaneb 14y agoI guess - people have been seeing my previous search queries via chrome for years now. Isn't this what incognito windows are for?
- tonfa 14y agoI never let people use my cookies. I always start an anonymous window to let people use my browser (especially since most of the time, they'll want to check their email and go to gmail...).
- barista 14y agoGood for you. I bet majority of non-tech savvy people don't do this or even know how to do this
- picklefish 14y agoOr anyone shoulder surfing (family, co-worker, etc) while you work on something together or look up movie times or anything will see contents of your gmail.
- Matt_Cutts 14y agoJust to reiterate: the box doesn't show any Gmail content by default. The default state of the box is collapsed. So we're only showing that you have matches in Gmail, and then you can choose whether to click and see the matches.