After three years, Google will again scan emails from users to show targeted ads.

At the end of June, Google published a statement stating that it had refused to scan emails of Gmail users in order to demonstrate relevant advertising to the same users. This method was very convenient both for the corporation itself and for its advertising partners, who had the opportunity to show targeted advertising to a wide audience. For example, a user wrote to someone about his beloved dog, and then in Google search or in the interface of Gmail itself, an ad for dog products was displayed. Conveniently.



Maybe this is true, but many users complained, stating that they do not want their letters to be viewed (even if they were a machine), and even for commercial purposes. As a result, the company chose to meet in order to stop users pouring discontent (and most importantly - stop complaining to the regulatory authorities of the United States and other countries). But, as it turned out, the ban on scanning can only be a temporary “action” from Google.



Just a month after a loud statement about the termination of the analysis of letters, it turned out that the reality is a bit different. The document , which was compiled by lawyers of the company, states that the messages will not be scanned for three years. Upon the expiration of this period, as far as can be understood, everything will start again. This document received the preliminary approval of the federal court in the United States. The paper was designed to settle a legal dispute initiated by a number of disgruntled Gmail users (yes, the company’s claim could not be avoided).



But even in this case, the scanning of letters does not stop. True, now we are talking about machine "perusal", performed for other, non-advertising purposes. Namely, user letters are scanned so that the company can detect phishing attempts, spam, etc. Problems. Advertising in the Gmail interface is still shown, but the source of information for targeting is no longer the message, but other services where the Gmail user is registered, for example, YouTube.



By the way, in 2015, the company said that it scans messages from its users for the purpose of advertising in order to simply “conduct business in the usual way”. The court denied this right to Google last year (by the way, the cost of legal expenses for this advertising case was already $ 2.3 million). And there is an interesting point. The law prohibits users from scanning incoming emails. But to analyze the contents of the mailbox with already received messages later, no one forbids. By the way, the users themselves agree with this procedure by registering with Gmail and clicking on the “Agree” button in the EULA.







Interestingly, after the publication of a statement by Google in her blog on the Web, information began spreading that Diana Green, vice president of Google Cloud, insisted on stopping scanning users' letters. Allegedly, its influence in the company has grown so much that it was able to influence the decisions of the senior management. Indirectly, that this is indeed the case, may be indicated by the fact that Green herself published the statement on her blog. True, the company promised the US federal court that it would not do that. Probably, Google still will not use this right in the near future - in any case, those same three years, which were discussed above. But what will happen next - no one knows.



The final verdict of the trial will be delivered on February 8, 2018, in the federal court of San Jose, California, USA.



It is not only Google that monitors its users, this is the fault of all major telecommunications companies. Last year, for example, it was reported about cases of a possible interception by the Facebook application of phone conversations of its users. Maybe this is not the case, but that after talking on the phone with the social network application, in the advertisements shown to the user, something close to the topic of conversation appeared, many users say. So far this is unproven, but this topic has become an occasion for discussion for conspiracologists of all stripes for many months in advance.