Google have announced that they’re going to stop scanning the contents of emails sent to their Gmail customers. They’ve been scanning emails so offer personalized ads to their users but they’ve promised to stop doing so. Gmail users will continue to receive personalized advertising but it’ll come from other data such as searches or browsing habits.
The move is designed to remove confusion that some paying G Suite users had over the privacy distinction between free and paid users. Paying Gmail business users were never subject to the email scanning whilst free users were. Diane Greene, who is Google Cloud Senior Vice President says that, “What we’re going to do is make it unambiguous.”
Privacy activists have been complaining about Google’s email scanning for years. This may seem like a hollow victory, however, as google will continue to scan emails. They’ll be scanning them for other reasons from now on though, like looking for scams or malware.
Via: The Guardian
