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Google allows hundreds of software developers to check the mailboxes of Gmail users who are registered, through an app or platform, to receive personalized information. At this conclusion came a Wall Street Journal investigation.
This revelation casts doubt on the announcement made by Google a year ago when it announced that it would stop the scanning processes of emails to personalize advertising and security. the privacy of users.
The note mentions some examples of companies where users' emails are read without their express consent. This is the case of the email marketing company Return Path and the management of emails and contacts, Edison Software. However, these companies claim that this practice is contemplated in the agreement signed by users and point out that employees who perform this activity follow a very strict protocol.
Why do they access e-mails?
] For many of these companies, it is simply a "usual" mechanism used to collect data used to develop or improve the operation of algorithms. This is explained by Thede Loder, former technology manager at eDataSource Inc (a competitor of Return Path), a company where, they say, user emails are no longer read.
What information do they collect?
Mining companies (information gathering) use software to analyze millions of messages a day to find consumer information that can be sold to marketing companies and other companies.
they use free applications and services that require access to users' mailboxes. And they do it without specifying clearly what information they collect or for what purpose.
By the mail, the content of the mails is followed to form the algorithms to the understanding of the natural language.
Purchasing information used can be very useful in recognizing trends in average prices and top-selling products
In turn, names and e-mails are replaced by figures related to such demographic data that the age and place
utility to know the tastes and consumption trends. And, most importantly, if you take into account that more than 1.4 billion users in the world use Gmail.
As pointed out in the note, there is no indication that Return Path, Edison or other developers have used However, the information does not stop. worry that these practices could lead to leakage of information, as happened with the Cambridge Analytica Facebook scandal.
What Google says
Google provides data only to previously evaluated external developers and to whom, in turn, users have explicitly granted permission to access to their boxes.
In addition, Google employees read e-mails only "in very specific cases, when the user requests and gives consent, or when it is necessary to do so to take e-mails". security measures, for example when an abuse or a bug is examined ", as published in the note
The agreements that govern Google's developers prohibit the disclosure of data of private users unless An explicit consent from these users, and it also prohibits developers from making permanent copies of this information or storing it in their databases.
Google states that a manual review is made of each developer or application requesting access to Gmail.The company verifies the domain name of the issuer in order to make sure that it is not about a person having violates Google's privacy policy. also point out that if they identify something that is just suspicious, they act immediately and that users can remove permission to access applications at any time.
However, the developers claim that the Mountain View giant is not trying too hard to ensure compliance with these privacy policies. Zvi Band, co-founder of the Contactingly App says that he does not remember seeing any evidence of such manual reviews being performed.
"Virtually any developer via a Google API can create an app that connects to Gmail accounts." When the user opens these apps, a message appears asking for access to his or her inbox If they accept it, Google offers the developer in question access to the mails, including the ability to read the contents of messages, as well as to send or delete messages. Microsoft also offers API tools for emails, "explains the article
How to know which applications the data accesses
To know all the applications that have been downloaded and related To Gmail, you can enter the "Applications with access to your account" section inside the control panel, from where you can also see which data the application has access to and from when.
In turn, in this ote, all the options that can be managed from the My Activity option found in the setup menu are detailed from Gmail.
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