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The content of your emails on Gmail might not be as private as it seems. A Wall Street Journal survey reveals that dozens of Google partner companies have access to emails from 1.5 billion users of the service.
Several companies are concerned. We can first find companies like Edison Mail, specialized in the management of emails. Return Path, an email marketing specialist, can also scan e-mails from more than two million people who have registered for one of its 163 partner applications.
Also read Google "My Account": instructions for managing your data
The two firms confirmed to Wall Street Journal that some of their engineers were able to view thousands of personal emails in order to design algorithms for processing this data. To do this, these applications ask for permission when they are installed to "read, send, write and manage your emails."
A wording that does not clearly explain that human developers will be able to access it. Yet according to the Wall Street Journal these practices would be widespread in the industry. But Gmail may not be the only one concerned, as other e-mail services also allow third-party applications.
Google considers itself in the rules
The American giant believes on his side not to be out of the nails. Google claims that it systematically checks the identity and activities of applications that want to access emails. The latter must indeed be able to justify the reasons for which they seek such access.
Read also Personal data: how to regain control
Moreover, Google argues that it is simple to discover if applications have such an authorization, and to revoke them if necessary [cliquez-ici]. In June 2017, the Mountain View company had already announced that it had stopped automatically scanning the mailboxes of its users to send them targeted advertisements.
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