Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails For Gmail Ads (bloomberg.com)

Google will soon stop scanning emails received by some Gmail users, a practice that has allowed it to show them targeted advertising but which stirred privacy worries. From a report: The decision didn't come from Google's ad team, but from its cloud unit, which is angling to sign up more corporate customers. Alphabet's Google Cloud sells a package of office software, called G Suite, that competes with market leader Microsoft. Paying Gmail users never received the email-scanning ads like the free version of the program, but some business customers were confused by the distinction and its privacy implications, said Diane Greene, Google's senior vice president of cloud. "What we're going to do is make it unambiguous," she said. Ads will continue to appear inside the free version of Gmail, as promoted messages. But instead of scanning a user's email, the ads will now be targeted with other personal information Google already pulls from sources such as search and YouTube.

Comments

WHOA

[Anonymous Coward]

Didn't see that coming.

Read what they said

[al0ha]

Google will no longer scan emails for the purposes of advertising targeting. They never said they would no longer scan emails altogether.

Speak No Evil :P

Re: Read what they said

[Albanach]

None of that is happening tho. They scan your emails to serve you ads. That's it. It isn't to make your life easier.

Maybe you don't have an android phone, or don't use Google Now? This stuff happens every day on Android. My phone lets me know where I parked my car - from the phone sensors, knows where I usually drive to on a Wednesday after work, so tells me the estimated travel time without any other entries, and will pull flight reservations, hotel bookings, bills due, package tracking and more straight from my email. These have been features since 2012.