Google is set to eliminate an advertising format that has raised many privacy concerns among its Gmail users.
Emails will no longer be scanned in order to show users personalized ads, instead, the firm will monitor online activity, such as searches, to generated targeted ads.
The change brings Gmail in line with the paid G Suite service that is geared towards corporate customers – Google said that it wanted to standardize its practices to appease its more than 3 million G Suite customers.
Since the release go Gmail, Google has been scanning users’ emails in order to show them personalized ads. However, the firm has received backlash from privacy activists about the unwarranted ‘eavesdropping’.Now, Google has announced it is scrapping the format and instead, will monitor its Gmail users’ online activity, such as searchers and YouTube interest, in order to generate the personalized ads.The change brings Gmail in line with the paid G Suite service that is geared towards corporate customers – Google said that it wanted to standardize its practices to appease its more than 3 million G Suite customers.
Privacy activists have long complained that the scanning of email contents amounts to unwarranted ‘eavesdropping’ on users, as the practice has been in place since Gmail has launched.
But now, the firm is set to scrap the format in order to put an end to the controversy.
A Google statement said Gmail users would still see ‘personalized’ ads and marketing messages but these would be based on other data, which may include search queries or browsing habits.
Google Cloud senior vice president Diane Greene said in a blog that the free Gmail service would now follow the same practices as its corporate G Suite Gmail.
‘Consumer Gmail content will not be used or scanned for any ads personalization after this change,’ Greene said.
‘This decision brings Gmail ads in line with how we personalize ads for other Google products. Ads shown are based on users’ settings.
‘Users can change those settings at any time, including disabling ads personalization.’
Instead of intruding in its user’s personal message, the firm is set to use their internet activity to target the ads, which seems to be a common and more accepted practice.
‘The value of Gmail is tremendous, both for G Suite users and for users of our free consumer Gmail service. Gmail is the world’s preeminent email provider with more than 1.2 billion users,’ shared Greene.
‘No other email service protects its users from spam, hacking, and phishing as successfully as Gmail.
‘By indicating possible email responses, Gmail features like Smart Reply make emailing easier, faster and more efficient.
‘Gmail add-ons will enable features like payments and invoicing directly within Gmail, further revolutionizing what can be accomplished in email.’
The internet giant earlier this year reached a settlement in a class action lawsuit in the matter, but a federal judge rejected the deal as inadequate.
US District Judge Lucy Koh ruled in March that the settlement was difficult to understand and ‘does not clearly disclose the fact that Google intercepts, scans and analyzes the contents of emails sent by non-Gmail users to Gmail users for the purposes of creating user profiles of the Gmail users to create targeted advertising.’
Danny Sullivan, founding editor of the online blog Search Engine Land, called the move a ‘big change’ for Gmail, noting that the scanning of email contents ‘has been the biggest hit against the services since it began.’
But Sullivan wrote on Twitter: ‘On the other hand, does it reassure consumers to know that Google has better info now about how to target them than by reading their emails?’
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