Do you think your Gmail is private? You'll probably have to rethink it, as Google is reportedly scanning the Gmail shopping messages it stores in your account.
In the week that passed to us, a user posted to Reddit what he discovered when opened the Google Shopping Accounts page. His page contained all the purchases made by Amazon and other online stores, even though they did not use Google Pay.
Inside the Purchases page, there were all purchases made from online services like Dominos, Steam, Amazon, Adidas and more. It is worth mentioning once again that the Reddit user did not use Google Pay.
How can this happen; Very simple. Google analyzes Gmail messages to track purchases that it then exports and stores.
BleepingComputer contacted Google about the issue, and executives confirmed that the information was from Gmail messages.
They stated that this is to help their users find their data easily and that they do not use any of this information to display advertisements.
"To make it easy for you to view and track your purchases, reservations and subscriptions in one place, we have created a private destination that only you can see. You can delete this information at any time. We do not use any information from your Gmail messages to show you ads, and this includes the receipts and email confirmations that appear on the Purchases page. ”
While they may not use this information to run ads, are they using them for something else? Google did not answer this question.
The company said we can delete this data at any time, but it did not say how difficult it is.
Rather than having a single setting that allows control over how this data is stored, you must delete each purchase individually. (See them pictures above).
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