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Hundreds of external application developers have access to private emails from Gmail users. Thousands of emails have apparently been read by their employees. Google forbids this access for developers.
The free email service "Gmail" has more than 1.4 billion users worldwide. In 2017, Google put an end to the automated badysis of emails for promotional purposes. Now it came out: the external application developers for the mail program still had access to the mailbox and also read messages from private users. This is reported by the "Wall Street Journal".
In general, the content of emails is automatically evaluated by search programs, for example, if they contain attachments or specific terms appear
Companies have accessed private messages. Not only were they able to read e-mail addresses and metadata, but also the complete content, according to the report.
Which users are concerned
Gmail users interested in courier services are particularly concerned For example, price comparators or travel planners have connected, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Users had to accept that developers have access to their emails. That they are scanned or searched for automatically by humans is not clearly formulated. The affected users have not been informed that their emails have been read.
Access to email is "the norm"
Some application developers have already admitted that emails are used by users to develop new features Employees have been read. Others have called this the normal case. Two companies said their employees read "thousands of messages" from users.
According to Google, app developers are verified before having access to emails. Google employees can also read user emails in special cases. This is the case of security incidents. However, the user must explicitly agree, it says.
Google would have exceeded the current practice of a red line, criticized the "Wall Street Journal". Doubts about the security of Gmail were also expressed.
Third Party Access
"It is true that all third-party email applications have access to their Gmail accounts when they are connected to them," said Evgeny Chereshnew, CEO and founder of Biolink. .Tech, "People need to realize that every time they connect or install a third-party application on their mobile device, they give rights to those apps – often without even thinking about it – apps get them. access to user contacts, information about the phone user, and things like GPS tracking, so this must be taken very seriously. "
Google refers to t-online.de on request English blog article. In this document, the group has the possibility that users can exclude third-party applications. Users would always be prompted to indicate if they wanted to allow an app to access their Google Mail account – and developers would be audited by the Internet company, according to Google. The company pointed out that app providers who have access to GMail accounts have been the subject of a multi-step review.
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