Google allows app developers to read Gmail messages

Google allows hundreds of external app developers to read emails from millions of Gmail users, warns the Wall Street Journal. This concerns people who use all kinds of Gmail applications. With these applications, developers also have access to users' inboxes.

One of these companies is Return Path, which collects data for marketers by analyzing the inboxes of more than 2 million users. applications registered in the Return Path Partner Network. Normally, e-mails are read by computers, but at some point, some 8,000 untreated e-mails were read by the employees of the company. This would have been necessary to train the software of the company.

According to Thede Loder, who worked for a Return Path competitor, it is "common" to collect this type of data. Employees of the company where Loder worked also looked at e-mails to develop and improve software algorithms. Companies point to their user agreement that indicates the method of work. Google says that it checks all developers who have access to the service and intervenes in unclear park traffic. Gmail users who want to know which apps have access to their account can visit this page via Gizmodo.

Response

Return Path, mentioned in the Wall Street Journal article, published a comment on his own blog. According to the company, the reporter was very selective and careless in the information he used from the company, as well as the "vague sources" that were quoted and would know how things worked within the company. ;business. The company declares that the ability to read users' emails is stipulated in the conditions.

In addition, the company is also carrying out "panic" and "alarmist" stories of journalists and others about data collection, data security and access to data. "Consumers often fall into the trap of thinking that all their concerns online can be resolved by not giving access to their data, but the reality is that if they withdraw from online tracking, the quality of their experience online will deteriorate considerably. says Matt Blumberg, founder of Return Path.