This is really urgent if it goes beyond A/B. Possibly even illegal already under some interpretations. It'd finally make me leave Gmail for sure.
Gmail/G Suite now editing URLs in mail message bodies to use Google URL redirect
21–30 of 89 posts
Re: Gmail/G Suite now editing URLs in mail message bodies to use Google URL redirect
#22I've planned to quit using Gmail for a long time now. Any tips on how to do it efficiently? I would prefer a native email client coupled to a simple hosting solution.
I moved to fastmail earlier this year. Honestly, it took a full day of updating all my accounts on every site that used my email. It helps to have a password manager to keep track of progress. Since then it's been pretty good. I keep my old gmail as an additional account on my email client to track things I've missed, but it's been surprisingly little.
Use your own domain! That way your email address isn't paired with your email host.
Re: Gmail/G Suite now editing URLs in mail message bodies to use Google URL redirect
#23How can this be legal?
It's to protect the privacy of the Gmail user - it means the website doesn't get to know that you came from gmail.com. Google doesn't get any extra info, since they already had all your email contents and you already had a privacy agreement with them.
One could argue that they have to do this to meet the law.
Re: Gmail/G Suite now editing URLs in mail message bodies to use Google URL redirect
#24Can't reproduce on either Gmail or GSuite, including on webmail (I thought this could be some sort of "you're leaving example.com, do you really want to do that" thing, but nope). The part about IMAP being affected sounds especially suspicious. Knowing op's track record I'd rather hear from some more impartial sources.
My track record? If you're going to accuse me of lying, I'd prefer that you do so overtly and put your own credibility on the line. https://twitter.com/sneakdotberlin/status/131783835638279782... It says source=gmail-imap right in the URL. Look.
Sorry for us being skeptical of 140 character claims...
I don't see how that url means Google is doing this, when none of us have been able to verify. There could be 100 different things touching your email doing this.
Pretty sure most hn wants this to be true as a reason to sharpen pitchforks.
Re: Gmail/G Suite now editing URLs in mail message bodies to use Google URL redirect
#25The recent actions of Big tech confirms to me that they believe any upcoming anti trust enforcement will have no teeth.
Re: Gmail/G Suite now editing URLs in mail message bodies to use Google URL redirect
#26Is there a reason that this would ever make sense for the end-user? If I click on a link, my browser opens it. Done, right?
Presumably to hide Gmail as the referer on browsers that don't support it. It doesn't make sense in the IMAP case. https://caniuse.com/referrer-policy
They can also use this for phishing prevention. There are probably other ways to do it -- e.g. you could rewrite the url dynamically at read time if it's been detected as a phishing attack -- but using a redirector is likely simpler.
Tbh I'm struggling a little to understand what the threat model is here. You trust gmail to receive and handle your email. In the vast majority of cases, you're accessing the email through their web frontend, where they could easily detect hovers and clicks and log those with fair reliability, if they had nefarious ends in mind. But them using a redirector is a bridge too far? If you trust them to do the first two items, it seems a little far fetched to distrust the last.
Re: Gmail/G Suite now editing URLs in mail message bodies to use Google URL redirect
#27I can't reproduce this. I tested it on both Gsuite and Gmail account.
Re: Gmail/G Suite now editing URLs in mail message bodies to use Google URL redirect
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Presumably to hide Gmail as the referer on browsers that don't support it. It doesn't make sense in the IMAP case. https://caniuse.com/referrer-policy
They can also use this for phishing prevention. There are probably other ways to do it -- e.g. you could rewrite the url dynamically at read time if it's been detected as a phishing attack -- but using a redirector is likely simpler. Tbh I'm struggling a little to understand what the threat model is here. You trust gmail to receive and handle your email. In the vast majority of cases, you're accessing the email throu…
If they're rewriting emails that you send out, that allows them to also track what the recipients of the emails do, even non-gmail ones. And not every gmail user uses the webmail interface either -- many use standalone clients that wouldn't normally have this tracking.
Also, there is something very wrong when we're okay with Google rewriting parts of our emails. How long until they decide to start modifying other bits of our emails? Reading the contents of the email is one thing, modifying it from its original is a whole 'nother ball game.
Re: Gmail/G Suite now editing URLs in mail message bodies to use Google URL redirect
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
I moved to fastmail earlier this year. Honestly, it took a full day of updating all my accounts on every site that used my email. It helps to have a password manager to keep track of progress. Since then it's been pretty good. I keep my old gmail as an additional account on my email client to track things I've missed, but it's been surprisingly little.
Use your own domain! That way your email address isn't paired with your email host.
Srsly, 12$.
Re: Gmail/G Suite now editing URLs in mail message bodies to use Google URL redirect
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
My track record? If you're going to accuse me of lying, I'd prefer that you do so overtly and put your own credibility on the line. https://twitter.com/sneakdotberlin/status/131783835638279782... It says source=gmail-imap right in the URL. Look.
Sorry, you have a history of making wild accusations like this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21109530
Agreed. His “evidence” means nothing and his background is very shady. Those screenshots could be completely made up.
Can someone else verify with raw data?