A very interesting article was recently brought to our attention regarding the safety of Gmail and it certainly gives food for thought.
“Most people are aware of the cookies that track them across the web, and the privacy-invading practices of Google search, but did you know Google’s email service, Gmail, collects large amounts of data too?
This was recently put into stark focus for iPhone users when Gmail published its app “privacy label” – a self-declared breakdown of the data it collects and shares with advertisers as part of a new stipulation on the Apple App Store.
According to the label, those that grant the appropriate permission to the iOS Gmail app can expect Google to share information including their approximate location, user ID – an identifier used to anonymously track them – and data about the ads they have viewed online with advertisers. More data is used for analytics – in Google’s words, “to build better services” – including purchase history, location, email address, photos and search history.”
Gmail is by far the most popular email service, with more than 1.5 billion active users, compared with 400 million using Microsoft Outlook and 225 million signed up to Yahoo Mail.
Although Google stopped scanning email content to tailor ads in 2017, last year the company started showing shopping ads in Gmail. And it still scans emails to facilitate so-called smart features such as the ability to add holiday bookings or deliveries straight to your calendar or to autocomplete suggestions.
Every way you interact with your Gmail account can be monitored, such as the dates and times you email at, who you are talking to, and topics you choose to email about says Rowenna Fielding, founder of privacy consultancy Miss IG Geek.
How Google uses your data
Much of the information collected by Gmail and shared with advertisers is metadata – data about data. But if you carry cookies from other Google services, your activity can be correlated or “fingerprinted” from associated products such as Google Maps and YouTube. “Gmail becomes a window into your entire online life because of how wide and deep their surveillance architecture goes,” Fielding says. “Practically everything you do online will feedback to Google.”
Part of the problem is a lack of regulatory enforcement around email data collection and tracking. Most people are becoming aware of tracking as they visit websites due to regulation such as the EU’s ePrivacy Directive and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
“People are aware of cookies because of privacy and data protection law – which states that planting trackers on your device requires your consent, and you have the right to be told about what is happening to your data,” says Fielding. “In Europe, those protections cover email tracking as well, but there hasn’t been much enforcement in this area.”
For the full article, please click here.
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