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by bluefirebrand 1964 days ago
All this shows me is that Google pinky promises that they don't do that.

Even if they don't scan the contents of your email bodies, you don't think they know who you are getting emails from, who you are emailing, and a boatload of info about who you do business with and such as a result?

I'm betting they do.
2 comments
ping_pong 1964 days ago
They do scan your emails for Amazon receipts so that they know what you purchase. That's why Amazon changed how they send receipts.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/17/google-gmail-tracks-purchase...

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username90 1964 days ago
Google engineers aren't exactly known to be loyal to the company, if Google didn't keep their promises about stuff like this I'm pretty sure it would get leaked quickly.
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bluefirebrand 1964 days ago
The language of the "promise" is such that there is a lot of gray area and there is a lot of information contained with an email that is not the "message" of the email.

Do you honestly think they just blindly deliver emails and don't take even a single scrap of data from them for their own benefit? The biggest data aggregator on the planet is just ignoring all of that data?

Ok.

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username90 1964 days ago
> Do you honestly think they just blindly deliver emails and don't take even a single scrap of data from them for their own benefit? The biggest data aggregator on the planet is just ignoring all of that data?

Yes, here is the official statement:

> Consumer Gmail content will not be used or scanned for any ads personalization after this change. This decision brings Gmail ads in line with how we personalize ads for other Google products.

https://blog.google/products/gmail/g-suite-gains-traction-in...

Edit: The problem with google is that they collect a lot of data they can abuse, not that they are particularly known to abuse data. So the danger is that their policies change while still having your data, then there is nothing you can do.

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owenmarshall 1964 days ago
An interesting question is how Google defines “content”.

I’d imagine Google could build up great profiles based on metadata alone - which domains email you, which you email, etc.

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