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A company told The Wall Street Journal that this practice was "routine" and that it was a "dirty secret".
Google said the practice does not violate its policies.
A security expert said that it was "surprising" that Google authorized it.
Gmail is the most popular email service in the world with 1.4 billion users.
Google allows users to connect their account to third-party email management tools or travel planning and pricing.
When connecting their account to an external service, users are asked to grant certain permissions, which often include the ability to "read, send, delete, and manage e-mail".
According to the Wall Street Journal, this permission sometimes allowed third-party employees who produce the application to read the users' e-mails.
Although messages are routinely handled by computer algorithms, the publication has spoken to a few companies whose employees read "thousands" of user messages.
Edison Software told The Wall Street Journal that he had scanned the emails of hundreds of users to create a new software feature.
Another company, eDataSource Inc., said its engineers had already analyzed emails to improve their algorithms.
Companies reported that they did not ask users for special permission to read their Gmail messages because the practice is covered by usage agreements.
"You can spend weeks living by reading the terms and conditions," said Professor Alan Woodward of the University of Surrey.
Google has stated that only companies that have been verified can access the messages and only if users "explicitly grant them permission to access their emails".
The company also indicated that Gmail users can visit the Security Check page to check which apps have linked their accounts and revoke anything they do not want to share.
Source:
www.bbc.co.uk
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