OK but will Google stop reading my email for other types of ads?
For example, if I write "I love coffee" in an email, am I more likely to see a Starbucks ad when I visit watch a YouTube video?
Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads
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Re: Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads
#72I never understood the argument that some automatic scanning for keywords is like "reading" your mail. By that same logic isn't Gmail's spam filter still "reading" your mail? It is classifying your mail based on content after all...
It's like my accountant reading my receipts to create my tax return versus a sleazy salesman sneaking a peek at them to find new ways to sell me stuff.
It's more like your accountant preparing your tax return for free in exchange for aggregating data about your receipts and offering you goods and services you may be interested in.
Re: Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article explains it plainly: they weren't getting the message to business people that Gmail on Google Apps isn't scanned despite free Gmail being, so they stopped scanning Gmail altogether.
stopped scanning Gmail altogether. Note that this is not what the article says. It says that they stopped scanning Gmail for ads , but does not say they stopped scanning email for non-ad purposes.
Well yeah. They have to scan content for you to effectively search your own email, which is one of their flagship features.
Re: Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
The spam filter is for my benefit, but scanning for ad keywords is designed to benefit someone else, not me.
To play Devil's advocate, the ads benefit you because they make Gmail free.
I would rather pay and do not share anything with Google (or for that matter all of Google's partners who can purchase our data)
Re: Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads
#75Re: Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads
#76I never understood the argument that some automatic scanning for keywords is like "reading" your mail. By that same logic isn't Gmail's spam filter still "reading" your mail? It is classifying your mail based on content after all...
The spam filter is for my benefit, but scanning for ad keywords is designed to benefit someone else, not me.
Ads benefit both you and the other group that they connect you. You finding out about, say, a product you are interested benefits you.
Re: Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article explains it plainly: they weren't getting the message to business people that Gmail on Google Apps isn't scanned despite free Gmail being, so they stopped scanning Gmail altogether.
stopped scanning Gmail altogether. Note that this is not what the article says. It says that they stopped scanning Gmail for ads , but does not say they stopped scanning email for non-ad purposes.
To be more accurate the article says they stopped scanning for ads that appear inside gmail. Whether they still scan emails in the free gmail for use outside gmail is unknown, but I may be being pedantic...
Re: Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads
#78I don't understand why there isn't an option for me to pay for Google to remove ads from gmail.
I've already paid for Youtube Red and couldn't be happier.
Re: Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads
#79I never understood the argument that some automatic scanning for keywords is like "reading" your mail. By that same logic isn't Gmail's spam filter still "reading" your mail? It is classifying your mail based on content after all...
The spam filter is [assumed to be] transient/generalized. While a user may set special tuning parameters to classify what they consider "junk", this probably reveals more about the inadequacy of the spam filter than it does about the user.
On the other hand, a program which analyzes mail to ascertain the tastes, interests, and personal plans of the participants is mining much more sensitive data, and it's compiling/storing it off-site long-term, and it's very specific to the individuals involved.
All of us who've used Gmail know how creepy it can get. Send a couple of mails about marriage and suddenly you start seeing targeted ads about engagement rings or other marriage-related things. Google stores this forever and they'll say "Ah, we know this guy was talking about marriage 10 years ago; traditionally, marriages fail after 5 years, we've detected a tense tone in his mails to his wife, BEEP BOP BOOP, DIVORCE LAWYER AD IS RELEVANT".
This inference is not only dubious (ethically and technically), but anyone observing your browsing while you're logged in will see these ads and may assume that you're seeing those ads because you've been searching for information on divorce, not because Google's inference is overzealous, although it may very well be. Search and replace with anything else: new credit cards/bankruptcy lawyers, research on a medical condition/ads for related medicines, etc.; the potential for creepy inference is endless, not to mention the concrete surveillance value provided to literal spies (via PRISM), nor the risk of compromise/abuse outside of the ad space. They don't have to get and process your entire mail archive; they just have to draw their inferences from Google's own inferences in your compiled taste/interest profile.
That's much more serious than a throwaway analysis of whether a mail contains spammy properties or not.
Re: Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
To play Devil's advocate, the ads benefit you because they make Gmail free.
I would rather pay and do not share anything with Google (or for that matter all of Google's partners who can purchase our data)
There are many options to pay for email, fastmail just for one. Do you use one of them?