Google to stop scanning private emails
Internet giant changes policy in effort to placate business users
Google has announced it will stop scanning the contents of private emails sent by Gmail users "in an attempt to reassure business customers of the confidentiality of their communications", says The Guardian.
The company currently "reads" the messages in order to target users with personalised adverts, but Diane Greene, senior vice president in charge of Google Cloud, told Bloomberg the firm would stop doing so to "more closely align" its business and consumer products.
G Suite customers, who pay Google for business use of web apps including Gmail, Google Docs, Calendar and Contacts, have never had their messages scanned for use in advertising, but some were apparently put off by the mistaken impression they were.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"What we're going to do is make it unambiguous," Greene said.
The move represents a major change in advertising policy. It does not mean the free version of Gmail will be ad-free, however, but will instead target users based on information gleaned from activity on their profiles, such as browsing history and location.
Nevertheless, it does "show the growing degree to which Google values its business customers", says The Guardian, especially as the search giant battles the likes of Amazon to become the internet's dominant cloud computing platform.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
'Stunningly lifelike' AI podcasts are here
Under the Radar Users are amazed – and creators unnerved – by Google tool that generates human conversation from text in moments
By Abby Wilson Published
-
Will the Google antitrust ruling shake up the internet?
Today's Big Question And what does that mean for users?
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
Wall Street tumbles on poor tech results
Speed Read US markets had their worst day since 2022 as Tesla and AI stocks dropped
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published
-
Why is the tech industry up in arms about Google's search algorithm leak?
Today's Big Question A leak of about 2,500 documents shed light on how Google's search engine operates, and not everyone is happy
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
How AI is going to change the Google search experience
Talking Points Summaries are the new links
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
Google unveils 'AI overviews' atop search results
Speed Read Users of the search engine in the US will now get AI-generated answers first
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Perplexity AI: has Google finally met its match?
In The Spotlight Generative AI start-up provides fast, Wikipedia-like responses to search queries
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Artificial history
Opinion Google's AI tailored the past to fit modern mores, but only succeeded in erasing real historical crimes
By Theunis Bates Published