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Google Allows Outside App Developers To Read People's Gmails, Says Report (thisisinsider.com)
According to The Wall Street Journal, hundreds of app developers have access to millions of inboxes belonging to Gmail users (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source). The developers reportedly receive access to messages from Gmail users who signed up for things like price-comparison services or automated travel-itinerary planners. Some of these companies train software to scan the email, while others enable their workers to pore over private messages. INSIDER reports: It's not news that Google and many top email providers enable outside developers to access users' inboxes. In most cases, the people who signed up for the price-comparison deals or other programs agreed to provide access to their inboxes as part of the opt-in process. In Google's case, outside developers must pass a vetting process, and as part of that, Google ensures they have an acceptable privacy agreement, The Journal reported, citing a Google representative.
What is unclear is how closely these outside developers adhere to their agreements and whether Google does anything to ensure they do, as well as whether Gmail users are fully aware that individual employees may be reading their emails, as opposed to an automated system, the report says. It's interesting to note that, judging from The Journal's story, very little indicates that Google is doing anything different from Microsoft or other top email providers. According to the newspaper, nothing in Microsoft or Yahoo's policy agreements explicitly allows people to read others' emails.
What is unclear is how closely these outside developers adhere to their agreements and whether Google does anything to ensure they do, as well as whether Gmail users are fully aware that individual employees may be reading their emails, as opposed to an automated system, the report says. It's interesting to note that, judging from The Journal's story, very little indicates that Google is doing anything different from Microsoft or other top email providers. According to the newspaper, nothing in Microsoft or Yahoo's policy agreements explicitly allows people to read others' emails.
Cloud = letting untrustworthy and/or incompetent companies manage your own data.
Roll-your-own IT = hard (as in, really hard - I'm not talking managing 5 servers in a small company), but as good and/or competent as you/your organization is willing to be.
The former looks like a good, cost-effective option until the company that manages your data screws your over or the internet goes down. The latter then starts to look like a better deal - but by then, it's too late.
Now then, ask yourself: is Google competent? Probably. Trustworthy? Hell no...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Unfortunately, you pretty much have to trust somebody.
Hosting your own email on your own server is not easy. It's not going to be the common way for all but a few odd geeks.
The rest? Gotta trust somebody ... your ISP, or Gmail, or MS, or some guys in Switzerland who assure you that they are the safe option, or ...
These people explicitly signed up for the service and granted it access. Look at the screen caps in the linked article:
https://amp.thisisinsider.com/...
It says right there "VIEW ... YOUR EMAIL IN GMAIL". If you were dumb enough to do this, and want to undo it, just go to your account settings and revoke that developers' access.