Gmail allows developers to read email from users

In the age of surveillance scandals like Cambridge Analytica, e-mail spying is a common concern. This fear is in some cases a reality: Google gives access to the emails of some of its users in the eyes of third-party developers, according to information from the Wall Street Journal.

Users who specified their Gmail address Some Google partner companies may see their private communications read by employees of these companies. The Wall Street Journal quotes the names of several companies involved. First of all, e-mail clients such as Edison Software, who by their very nature must have access to their users' mailboxes. Return Path, an email marketing specialist, also scans e-mails from more than two million people who have registered for one of its 163 partner applications. Contacted by the Wall Street Journal the two firms said they had viewed thousands of personal emails to some of their engineers for the design of algorithms processing this data. Such practices would be considered standard in the industry, they say.

Such applications require, when you enter your Google Account, permission to "read, send, write, and manage your e-mail." mails. " This wording nevertheless suggests that emails will only be read by the software, while human developers can actually access them. Gmail might not be the only service involved, as other e-mail admits third-party applications.

Google keeps the vagueness around e-mail surveillance

Google claimed to give such access only 'to verified developers: the application must not mislead its purpose and access to e-mail must be justified. The control of e-mails must also be mentioned in its privacy policy. Apps with Google Account permissions can be reviewed, and eventually revoked, in the settings under "Apps with access to your account."

The US giant added that its employees could also read emails Gmail users "in very specific cases" generally requiring the consent of the user. The firm remains vague and evokes reasons of "security" or "fight against abuse."

A year ago, after a long controversy, Google had said stop scanning automatically mailboxes of its users to search for keywords to produce targeted advertising. It was only a matter of reading by algorithms, and not by humans as is the case here. The situation is reminiscent of the one that plunged Facebook into the Cambridge Analytica case. The social network has also allowed third-party applications to retrieve private information about their users.