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by petilon 2755 days ago
If you have Gmail click this link, it is an eye opener: https://myaccount.google.com/purchases

Google knows every online purchase you ever made, every line item, the price you paid, the address it was delivered to, and so on.

Keep in mind that Facebook and Google also combine this data with offline data about you purchased from other companies, to complete the picture.

UPDATE: Here's an example of Google purchasing data about your offline purchases: https://www.fastcompany.com/90230910/google-has-been-secretl...

6 comments

> Your purchases and reservations are brought together from across your Google Account, from sources including: Orders placed using Google services, like Google Play Store, Google Express, or through the Google Assistant. Order receipts or confirmations received in Gmail.[1]

Wow I have a bunch gained from scraping my emails (there is an info icon that tells you the source). Mostly larger multinational merchants (Amazon/PSN), obviously the scraping isn't very advanced. Only covers a tiny fraction of my online purchases with receipts in gmail.

I also see a bunch of purchases made by a guy with the same name but on a different continent who frequently gives out the wrong gmail address (I get random mails from their friends from time to time). Thankfully they aren't buying uranium :P

Once again with google data collection I cant help but get the feeling that this is something that wasn't specifically designed for advertising. Why would they provide that link in the first place and draw attention to it when they could just do it behind the scenes (as Im sure the rest are)?

[1] https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/7673989?p=orders&...

Umm I can't delete the purchases and reservations info. Time to ditch gmail.
They probably let you see it because of gdpr, and wouldn't have before that law?
I'm not sure. This is not a data collection, it is a filter on an existing data collection.

The data itself are your emails, which they keep because they are your email provider, and they already show them to you whenever you want them.

Which provides a very interesting workaround for google against the GDPR. But IANAL so probably I am missing something.

This just looks like a list compiled from invoices/receipts that were sent to my gmail from various vendors that has been parsed. Actually there's a lot of stuff that is missing.

Seems pretty tame actually, but I also don't use gmail for my whole life.

I'm a big advocate of privacy, but I think Google is pretty open about what they do. If you don't want this, there are usually ways to opt out and still use the service, but of course you can always use something else. I've been really enjoying Proton Mail.

>> Google is pretty open about what they do

Where have they disclosed their deal with MasterCard?

>> there are usually ways to opt out and still use the service

Often the opt outs don't work, and these appear to be "intentional bugs": wifi privacy intentional bug https://www.wired.com/2012/05/google-wifi-fcc-investigation/ google home bug https://bgr.com/2017/10/11/google-home-mini-spying-on-user-f...

And the latest "bug": In Chrome if you turn off "Allow Chrome sign-in", Chrome signs you into the browser anyway, when you sign into Gmail.

Google's "don't be evil" days are a distant memory now.

Fair points, tho I do think I apply Hanlon's Razor a little more liberally there than you do.
Does it matter if the effect is the same?
Thank you, and WOW. I had been on the fence about using a gmail account to register for accounts elsewhere, based on their assurances that they'd stop scanning emails. I've got app and album purchases from the Apple store listed here, as well as Amazon purchases and local delivery pizza orders.
I've checked https://myaccount.google.com/purchases

"You don't have any purchases"

Got that from my work Google apps account. But got results from my personal Gmail. It indeed looks like a list compiled from my email invoices. I don't remember asking Google to keep track of it though.
Same here.
> You don't have any purchases
huh, don't know for others but for me it doesn't have one hundredth of what I bought
I have exactly two purchases listed there, for apps from the Play Store.

Good infosec and blocking all trackers pays off.

I also have only apps and devices purchased directly from Google. I wonder what makes the difference.