Google to stop scanning private emails

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.

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"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.