Ok, so this was written 20 SEPTEMBER 2018
so I’m a bit late with this.. Full article here
Previously Google itself mined users’ emails for personal data in order to target its advertising, but stopped in 2017 after a class action lawsuit accused it of illegal wiretapping.
The company continues to scan emails to let users search their inboxes, to detect spam and malware and to generate suggestions for its new auto-reply feature, which automatically suggests simple responses to emails. It also uses data from other sources to personalise adverts.
“No humans at Google read users’ Gmail,” said Ms Molinari, “except in very specific cases where they ask us to and give consent or where we need to for security purposes, such as investigating a bug or abuse.”
Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Centre in Washington, DC told the Journal that privacy policies were insufficient and that there was “simply no way that Gmail users could imagine that their personal data would be transferred to third parties.”
Earny’s privacy policy, accessed on September 20, says that it will access and analyse “the content of your emails” and share them with Return Path. Return Path in turn says it will use your data to “understand how you engage with email” and optimise marketing campaigns.
A study by Deloitte last year found that 91 per cent of users consent to terms of service without reading them.
Google | How to see what apps can read your emails
- Head to https://myaccount.google.com/security-checkup/3 while logged into Gmail
- Click on “Show others” to reveal what apps are linked to your Google account
- Click on the “i” to see what access each app has
- You can remove individual apps by clicking “remove access”