03-30-2013, 03:36 PM | #1 |
Gregg Bell
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Is Google reading my email?
I haven't had gmail that long and I really haven't sent or received that many emails, but I've been talking to a friend about doing an ebook cover, and a lot of what we've talked about has centered around doing the graphics for it. Now I just got a Graphic Design ad right next to my emails. I suppose it's possible that it's a coincidence but that's very unlikely. I know they know where you've gone on the web and send you ads that way, but do they actually read the insides of your emails?
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03-30-2013, 03:52 PM | #2 |
Grand Sorcerer
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Yes. They read your email. But they make up for it by doing an outstanding job of keeping all those Nigerian princes from bugging you for help to access to their cash. It's a fair trade all in all.
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03-30-2013, 04:05 PM | #3 |
Grand Sorcerer
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If by reading, you mean a computer algorithm scanning the messages and displaying ads based on what appears to be of interest, yes it does.
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03-30-2013, 04:36 PM | #4 |
eBook Enthusiast
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Is there a human reading it? No.
Do you get ads based on the context of what's in the message? Yes, of course you do. |
03-30-2013, 06:47 PM | #5 | |
Cheese Whiz
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That cat is out of the bag. . .
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03-30-2013, 08:10 PM | #6 | |
Nameless Being
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That being said, you can always encrypt your email if you are concerned about your privacy. A starting point would be to use HTTPS for webmail or one of the encryption schemes for POP3/IMAP. It won't accomplish anything with respect to your email provider, but it does prevent your internet service provider from snooping. Encrypting the messages themselves is also an option, and offers much better protection. Alas, the requires cooperation from those sending you email and those receiving your email. |
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03-30-2013, 08:18 PM | #7 |
Surfin the alpha waves ~~
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Even enccrypted, if the friend you were emailing was the cover designer, Google would probably know that and still give you targeted ads.
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03-30-2013, 08:52 PM | #8 |
Resident Curmudgeon
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I've not seen a single ad. But then, adblockplus does an excellent job keeping ads away from me.
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03-30-2013, 10:13 PM | #9 |
Wizard
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Use outlook.com, if you don't want them to analyze the contents of your e-mail. Whenever you use any Google service it is like having your own "personal assistant" recording your every move. It goes way beyond what anyone else does. Some are fine with that, some are not.
Microsoft is providing an alternative to that approach. Last edited by HansTWN; 03-30-2013 at 10:17 PM. |
03-31-2013, 01:58 AM | #10 | |
Guru
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Quote:
I am filthy rich and am the toast of Nigeria. My manhood is so large that I can't leave my house. Women who eschew both clothing and grammar are clamoring for me. Thanks to my much smaller Gmail spam folder: I am broke. My entire fortune lost to an online casino. I know 5 billion recipes for Spam. (At least, I assume the ad is related to the spam folder). Fair trade? Hah! |
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03-31-2013, 02:06 AM | #11 | |
Evangelist
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Quote:
Ghostery: http://www.ghostery.com/ AdBlock: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...namgkkbiglidom The first blocks trackers that follow you from site to site and analyze your interests. The second flat out blocks ads, including those in Gmail. Google will still know what you're writing--their alogorithms run on their servers, where your e-mail sits--but you won't have to deal with the ads. |
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03-31-2013, 06:51 AM | #12 |
Nameless Being
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Probably. It's actually getting quite annoying. I am diligent about protecting my email address, phone number, street address, etc. from marketers. Yet many of the people I know give that data to Google anyhow. Then they give access to their address book to other businesses because a random social networking service asks for it or they ignore the permissions of applications on their Android device.
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03-31-2013, 07:03 AM | #13 | |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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"Two people can keep a secret, if one of them is dead." |
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03-31-2013, 07:16 AM | #14 |
MR Drone
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I find it odd that people want to use all of Google's products ...gmail, google maps, etc... but use add blockers....But, I assume that those adverts help to pay for the gmail etc.... or am I missing something?
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03-31-2013, 07:56 AM | #15 | |
Cynical Old Curmudgeon
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True, but if they didn't 1) use ads to track and profile people, and 2) didn't make the ads annoying (animated, filled with scripts and occasional malware, etc.), fewer people will end up blocking (not that many do, however, certainly not enough to affect the adscums' bottom lines) |
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