Google is Reading Your Mail (Sort of)

16-04-2014 11:19am #1

Google in a court filing this week wrote: All users of email must necessarily expect that their emails will be subject to automated processing. Just as a sender of a letter to a business colleague cannot be surprised that the recipient’s assistant opens the letter, people who use web-based email today cannot be surprised if their emails are processed by the recipient’s [email provider] in the course of delivery. Indeed, ‘a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over to third parties. So what does Google mean by "automated processing" and "opening"? Well it turns out that if someone from a different service emails one of Gmail's 425 million users, Google opens that message and scans it looking for keywords -- even when the message is a non-Gmail user and has not agreed to Google's legal terms. It then uses those keywords to target advertisements at you and your contacts.
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http://www.dailytech.com/Google+Yes+we+Read+Your+Gmail/article33184.htm

http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/terms/archive/20131111-20140414/

industrialhorse · 16-04-2014 12:50pm

I wonder if Steganography would be the best way around this problem:pac:

harney · 17-04-2014 3:04pm

I think this was first mentioned around 2004, so while not nice it is nothing new.

Microsoft seem to have a much worse track record than Google.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/21/microsoft-tightens-privacy-policy-journalists-emails

afatbollix · 17-04-2014 3:06pm

This was talked about when Gmail came about so nothing new.

Also they just scan your emails to direct ads to you. Really your emails are not of interest to google.

cant touchthis · 30-04-2014 11:41pm

Google stops scanning student Gmail accounts following privacy concerns

Google is Reading Your Mail (Sort of)

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