Gmail Is Getting Way Too Creepy. They Need to Re-Think How They Read Our Mail.
By
Staten Island, NY Posted: 10/22/2014 1:00:00 AM
Google knew that I was shopping for a lawnmower... even before I did. That's creepy.
As many people know, when Google introduced Gmail, in the Terms of Service, Google reserves the right to use the content of your emails to serve targeted advertising. They don't hide it. They try to make it a point of telling you it's there.
When Gmail first started, it was pretty simple. If you were reading an email about sneakers, there was a good chance the advertising on the Gmail page might be related to sneakers. It freaked some people out at first, including a lot of people in Congress. Google defended their system by making it clear that although their software was indeed reading your email, no human was. At worse, you saw some ads next to your email that seemed to know what you were reading as you read it.
I know that nobody at Google is reading your email... but they have expanded this to a point where it's downright creepy. Here's how.
Previously the only ads you saw were on the side of the email you were reading. It was odd at first, but people eventually understood that this was just the price of free email.
Now that Google serves ads on other sites, they have taken this practice to a whole new level. So as you surf your favorite sites, you will suddenly see ads that seem to relate to the things you've been talking about in your emails. In fact, some ads are even related to emails you haven't even opened yet.
In my case, I was suddenly seeing a ton of ads for lawnmowers on quite a few sites. Later that day, I opened an email somebody sent me about my opinion on some lawnmowers. So, Google was sending me emails about lawnmowers even before I opened that email.
It's one thing to show me ads related to the email I'm currently reading, but an entirely different thing to start showing ads on other sites about subjects I haven't even read about.
What if one of your friends sends you some jokes about a dead pet... then before you even open it, you see ads saying things like "Sorry for your loss".
Google should re-think the way they use the content of our email. If nothing else, they should limit to emails we have actually read. At least then we will know why we are suddenly seeing ads related to the content. Seeing ads about things we haven't read yet is just plain stupid.
Joe Crescenzi, Founder
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