Google's Gmail controversy is all that people hate about Silicon Valley



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Many people might have access to your data. Advocates of privacy say that it is too difficult to expect that you keep track.


James Martin / CNET

When the news of Google let the developers of the Gmail application scan and even read your email we heard what has become the usual excuse of Silicon Valley: c & # 39; what you signed.

t like how Facebook shares your data with third-party developers? Too bad, it's right there in the privacy policy. How about how Twitter tracks your activity on websites? Society spelled this out in its data policy. What? You have not bothered to read it? And maybe you were angry when you learned last year that Unroll.Me was selling information from your inbox. The CEO of the company found this "heartbreaking", but it is so that companies earn money through a free service.

Privacy advocates have been pushing the way of doing business in the industry for years. Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said in an email that companies, including Google and Facebook, must take responsibility for how software developers exploit your data

how companies Third-party companies will use their personal data, "said Rotenberg." Just like Facebook, Google is responsible for the misuse of personal data by application developers. "

You can disable sharing of data in some cases – or you can stop using the service.However, it is hard not to have the impression that our privacy is being violated.Consumers' reaction is becoming a major challenge for technology companies facing lawmakers, lawsuits and the threat of regulation over data policies of which they We've always talked about it

Forrester analyst Fatemeh Khatibloo Businesses need to tell users what the trade-off is for receiving free services. "It must be made very clear:" We provide this service for free because we monetize your data by other means, "said Khatibloo.

The question resurfaced this week after a review of the Wall Street Journal has revealed that "hundreds" of external software vendors can scan your inbox through third-party Gmail applications. (Gmail has over 1 billion active users per month .) In some cases, the employees of the developers have had access to thousands of emails from Gmail users.

A developer called Return Path, a marketing company that offers free tools for organizing business. emails, let its employees read about 8,000 user emails two years ago to help develop business software.Another free application called Edison Software, which helps users to manage their e-mail, has allowed its employees to read thousands of emails to form the function "Smart Reply" in their application, reports the newspaper.

now stopped the practice. But the two also argued against giving employees access to Gmail data, saying that humans need to see this data to build their software. "As anyone who knows the software know it, artificial intelligence comes directly from human intelligence," said Return Path in a blog post on his website. ] Giving developers access to your data can be part of the terms of service – whether for tech giants like Google or Facebook, or startups of 20 people – but people often do not realize exactly what They accept.

Google said last year that it would stop scanning users' emails for data that helps marketers target ads. Since then, privacy of data from third-party application developers has been a hot topic. In March, Facebook acknowledged that Cambridge Analytica, a digital consulting firm linked to Trump's presidential campaign, had inaccurately accessed the personal information of 87 million social network users.

Khatibloo pointed out that Gmail controversy affected more than Gmail users. She noted that if she had sent an email to someone who was using Return Path or Edison, her employees would also have read her emails.

"I did not agree that my data be evaluated by Return Path, but by registering for the service, someone to whom I sent a email me opted for it, "said Khatibloo. "And I think that's the big privacy breach."

Google's Gmail Controversy: Third-party application developers can read your mail.

Cambridge Analyitica: All you need to know about the privacy scandal of Facebook.

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