Companies that buy data derived from scraping the contents of email
1–10 of 45 posts
Re: Companies that buy data derived from scraping the contents of email
#2This sort of thing is why I don't trust any apps that I haven't built myself, and keep them firewalled off from the internet to they can't phone home. I trust commercial applications on the desktop to exactly the same degree, for the same reasons.
In terms of privacy and respecting the users, the state of software today is deplorable.
Re: Companies that buy data derived from scraping the contents of email
#3Also relevant:
Google Admits: Third-Party Apps Can Still Access Your Gmail Data
https://fossbytes.com/google-admits-third-party-apps-can-sti...
Re: Companies that buy data derived from scraping the contents of email
#4Edison posted a response[0] with this amazing sentence:
> to protect your privacy by rejecting an advertising-based business model, our company Edison Software, measures e-commerce through a technology that automatically recognizes commercial emails and extracts anonymous purchase information from them
[0]: https://medium.com/changing-communications/a-reminder-of-how... (non-Medium: https://outline.com/7K3TAL)
Re: Companies that buy data derived from scraping the contents of email
#5If something is free on the internet, there is a good chance you are the product.
Re: Companies that buy data derived from scraping the contents of email
#6From their T&C's page "you may provide us with information about your contacts (such as names, email addresses, etc.)"
Whoever installs this app consents to sharing the information of their contacts, who might not consent to having their data shared.
Ultimately, this could lead to giving disposable contact details to friends and relatives, in order to (try to) preserve one's privacy.
Re: Companies that buy data derived from scraping the contents of email
#7This sort of thing is why I don't trust any apps that I haven't built myself, and keep them firewalled off from the internet to they can't phone home. I trust commercial applications on the desktop to exactly the same degree, for the same reasons. In terms of privacy and respecting the users, the state of software today is deplorable.
WeChat killed their web interface for most users and replaced it with a message that translates to: "For your own account safety, this account cannot use the web version. You can use the Windows or Mac client [download links]"
Safety? Web is about as safe as it gets. It's one thing to spy on users but it's a whole another thing for Tencent to masquerade under the name of safety to cheat users into downloading what could quite possibly be spyware. That's not only spying but also spreading false information about computer security to the masses.
Re: Companies that buy data derived from scraping the contents of email
#8Edison posted a response[0] with this amazing sentence: > to protect your privacy by rejecting an advertising-based business model, our company Edison Software, measures e-commerce through a technology that automatically recognizes commercial emails and extracts anonymous purchase information from them [0]: https://medium.com/changing-communications/a-reminder-of-how... (non-Medium: https://outline.com/7K3TAL )
I am having trouble parsing that out, why would they be extracting 'anonymous' purchase information from 'automatically recognize[d] commercial emails' if they care about protecting privacy... ?
Re: Companies that buy data derived from scraping the contents of email
#9Also relevant: Google Admits: Third-Party Apps Can Still Access Your Gmail Data https://fossbytes.com/google-admits-third-party-apps-can-sti...
Well... no shit? If you gave someone permissions to read your emails, obviously they can read your emails. And because they can read it, they can also copy your emails and/or share it with other companies. This isn't something that can be stopped by google.
Re: Companies that buy data derived from scraping the contents of email
#10Also relevant: Google Admits: Third-Party Apps Can Still Access Your Gmail Data https://fossbytes.com/google-admits-third-party-apps-can-sti...
On an opt-in basis, which seems fine. A lot of people want email activity being fed to some other tool like CRM or call center software.