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Google Defends Gmail Data Sharing, Gives Few Details on Violations (reuters.com)
Google defended how it polices third-party add-ons for Gmail in a letter to U.S. senators made public on Thursday, saying that upfront review catches the "majority" of bad actors. A report adds: Google said it uses automated scans and reports from security researchers to monitor third parties with access to Gmail data, but gave no details on how many add-ons have been caught violating its policies. Google's privacy practices have been under growing scrutiny. The Senate Commerce Committee has a hearing scheduled for Sept. 26 to question Google, Apple, AT&T, Twitter about their consumer data privacy practices. Gmail, the Google email service used by 1.4 billion people, enables add-on developers access to users' emails and the ability to share that data with other parties as "long as they are transparent" with users about how they are using data and get consent, Google said in the letter. For instance, a program that logs receipts could be allowed to scan Gmail as it searches for receipts.
I'll fully support Google sharing my purchasing history if they give me all of the credit card numbers of all their employees from the top down.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
A vital part of freedom is having the freedom to choose to trust whom or what you want to trust or to choose not to even care about privacy over service. If the government wants to get into the business of policing the add-ins, fine, though I personally feel that policing to catch crimes before they happen is an overreach of the Constitutional duties given to government. But policing has to be to detect a real crime. Do not limit what I can do for the purpose of protecting me from myself. That is a massive overreach.
Google, as the private business offering the API, does have a right to police how their product is used given that misuse could damage their business. They especially have the right to at least verify that the add-ins are correctly disclosing and are not violating their rules. But, I am the only one with the right to decide what level of privacy I'm willing to sacrifice to get services.