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Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads

bloomberg.com

11–20 of 460 posts

Re: Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads

#12
post #4

I should probably get fitted for a tinfoil hat because my immediate reaction was, "Oh shit! They must've developed something now that tracks you better and is less obvious."

Actually, you can buy some paint that blocks all RF signals. It's absurdly expensive but quite effective. There aren't many ways to get signals out of a room painted with the stuff. If you're thinking "Why not just build a faraday cage?" then you're thinking the right thing.

I've thought about turning my whole house into a faraday cage way too many times to be considered sane still.

Re: Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads

#13
post #5

Good for them. Though it goes without saying email is insecure. If enterprise clients dislike an algorithm scanning their email contents, maybe they should also consider that email generally has unencrypted transit and storage.

Very few servers store/transmit emails unencrypted...

Not that few - more than 1 in 10 emails sent and received by Gmail are unencrypted: https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/saferemail/

Re: Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads

#14
So much for the argument "how else is Google going to make money if it isn't reading your emails?!"

Companies can make money without tracking you 24/7 and reading all of your private content. They just choose not to, because it's easier, and then spread the propaganda that those things are "needed" to stay in business.

Re: Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads

#16
post #4

I should probably get fitted for a tinfoil hat because my immediate reaction was, "Oh shit! They must've developed something now that tracks you better and is less obvious."

My educated guess would be that given the proliferation of services offered by Google, it indeed has many more sources of information on each individual, and having email as one of them perhaps proves less beneficial today as it did when Gmail was first introduced. Now there is the Android OS which gives information about apps you use, locations, activities, and online searches, map queries, bookmarks, sentiments via G+, etc. So, it can disable auto-scanning of emails perhaps as a PR move (or, should I hope it is going to eventually evolve its email service to include encrypting emails, and this is one step in that direction??).

Re: Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads

#18
post #4

I should probably get fitted for a tinfoil hat because my immediate reaction was, "Oh shit! They must've developed something now that tracks you better and is less obvious."

Hah. I came here to basically say the same:

"They have such a strong baseline of the predilections of their users, and by association with those they regularly communicate - by their overlapping interests and behaviors, googles ad dossier on any given user is complete enough to no longer read the drivel one sends to another to predict your future choices.

Re: Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, you can buy some paint that blocks all RF signals. It's absurdly expensive but quite effective. There aren't many ways to get signals out of a room painted with the stuff. If you're thinking "Why not just build a faraday cage?" then you're thinking the right thing.

I've thought about turning my whole house into a faraday cage way too many times to be considered sane still.

It's fun, isn't it? It's one of those things that costs way too much to be practical but you can't help but try to think of ways to get the cost down. Mini-SpaceX in a useless domain.

Re: Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads

#20
post #14

So much for the argument "how else is Google going to make money if it isn't reading your emails?!" Companies can make money without tracking you 24/7 and reading all of your private content. They just choose not to, because it's easier, and then spread the propaganda that those things are "needed" to stay in business.

Google can stop reading your emails because they track you so well you elsewhere. You wouldn't want to cite this example.
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