It must be made very clear that not all data is collected for ads. And let’s be fair, who is checking privacy policies to make sure they’re not accidentally adding their friends to some database? It makes sense, but it’s still kind of creepy. Doist, for example, which also offers a Gmail add on, informs users that they should get “permission from co-workers or friends before sharing Information referring to co-workers or friends with” the company, because “if you choose to share and collaborate on a task with your co-workers or friends, will collect the email address of your co-workers or friends.” Sometimes, you might not even know that an add-on service is getting your information.
However, in order to use the extension, you have to agree to their privacy policy, which gives them the right to “collect and store content that you post, send, receive and share” through any of their products – does this include emails running through the Gmail add on? A big part of their data use is intended to “market, promote and drive engagement with” their services. To make matters worse, terms of service and privacy policies are often so dense and complicated that it can be hard to know if a company is using your data for marketing or not.įor example, Trello is an extremely popular productivity app that also offers a Gmail extension. Just like Edison was caught out in 2020, there are plenty of other email apps (clients, extensions, etc.) out there just waiting to exploit the loopholes in major email providers’ terms of services to get your data. However, just a year later, it was reported that Google still allowed third-party apps to scan your emails and share that data with others that they deem fit.Īnd this is where a lot of the problems are. Google stopped scanning users’ emails for ad-related purposes back in 2017. Unfortunately, those users are all open to targeted advertisements based on the content of their emails.ĪOL Mail, just like Yahoo! Mail, is controlled by Oath, the media division of Verizon, and is thus subject to the same Terms of Service and Privacy Policy quoted above. Incredibly, there are still more than 1.5 million users of AOL Mail in the United States, despite it being one of the first providers around. “Yahoo analyzes and stores all communications content, including email content from incoming and outgoing mail.” ”Īnd in the Yahoo Privacy Policy, from September 2021: We can only provide many of these Services by using your personal data to provide personalized content and ads. “By using and benefitting from Yahoo’s Services you recognize that personalization lies at the core of many of our services. In 2018, Yahoo! Mail’s parent company made it very clear that they would continue to scan users’ inboxes for data for targeted ads, despite others in the tech world bringing the practice to an end. In terms of actual email providers, there are two that still openly scrape emails for targeted advertisement.Īs of early 2020, Yahoo! Mail had about 225 million users – all of whom are open to email scanning for targeted ads. Let’s take a look at some that might surprise you. There are plenty of other companies out there looking to cash in on your data. However, Edison was not alone in its questionable data policies. Programs that provide “detailed behavior patterns to improve your customers’ experience and business results.” It’s scary to think that your email app may be spying on you, and that there’s big money to be made in selling on the contents of your inbox to data-hungry commercial concerns! Just last year, in fact, Vice revealed that popular email provider Edison was raking its users’ inboxes for its “Edison Trends” and “Trends Direct” programs. That Facebook getaway suggestion that you only talked to your friends about. Google Predict’s uncanny knack of knowing what you’re searching for after typing just two letters. Ever get the feeling that you’re being watched? That someone is following you? That the guy sitting on the bench over there-guy in a trench coat, guy holding a large newspaper with two eye holes cut out-is actually spying on you? Or maybe it’s something a little more insidious.
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