Tech’s ‘Dirty Secret’: The App Developers Sifting Through Your Gmail

App developers can sift through the emails of millions of Gmail users, The Wall Street Journal reports. This practice has been known in the industry for a long time, but Google had promised last year that it would stop its computers from scanning the messages of Gmail users to personalize advertisements.

While that may be true, the tech giant continues to give access to “hundreds of outside software developers scan the inboxes of millions of Gmail users who signed up for email-based services offering shopping price comparisons, automated travel-itinerary planners or other tools,” WSJ reports.

This access enables these third parties to view Gmail users’ emails, recipient addresses, timestamps, and the entire content of those messages. Google suggests that all of this happens “with” user consent, however, it may be another case of tricking users into giving consent without properly informing them about it first.


Google may not be going through your Gmail inboxes anymore, but it’s certainly letting others do it
Similar to other tech giants, Google has also allowed developers to have access to user accounts as long as users gave their permission. However, this practice has raised several concerns specifically because companies often confuse users with legalese, tricking them into agreeing with everything.

In this particular case, if a Gmail user is trying to take advantage of a price comparison or travel itinerary planning services, the app’s service agreement also enables it to view users’ emails. The Journal reported that this has actually become a “common practice” for marketing companies. It isn’t clear how carefully Google is monitoring such access and what measures it has taken to avoid the Cambridge Analytica-like data misuse cases.