Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads

Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by blowski on Friday June 23, 2017 @01:33PM (#14621002)

To play Devil's advocate, the ads benefit you because they make Gmail free.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by simias on Friday June 23, 2017 @02:51PM (#14621702)

What about people not using gmail but sending email to a gmail users? Those don't gain anything here.

I actually host my own email but every time I send a message to somebody using one of these webmails it gets indexed and monetized.

But I would argue that it's a technical problem first and foremost, email security is mostly a joke. If I need to send sensitive things through emails I can always use PGP to actually protect it, instead of relying on the goodwill of the email provider not to peek into the message. If people really valued their privacy they'd be doing something similar.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by StreamBright on Friday June 23, 2017 @01:35PM (#14621039)

I would rather pay and do not share anything with Google (or for that matter all of Google's partners who can purchase our data)

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by ams6110 on Friday June 23, 2017 @01:39PM (#14621071)

There are many options to pay for email, fastmail just for one. Do you use one of them?

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by StreamBright on Friday June 23, 2017 @02:42PM (#14621619)

And how exactly will I escape Google's data collection when Fastmail uses GA for analytics?

....script type="text/javascript" src="/static/scripts/ga.js....

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by jkaunisv1 on Friday June 23, 2017 @03:10PM (#14621906)

Run a broad-spectrum blocker like uBlock Origin? Access your fastmail from an interface other than their web interface?

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by StreamBright on Friday June 23, 2017 @03:18PM (#14621966)

Ok so there is more involved than just use Fastmail, as it was suggested. Thanks for confirming.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by dabernathy89 on Friday June 23, 2017 @04:24PM (#14622465)

> many options to pay for email, fastmail just for one

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by chrismorgan on Sunday June 25, 2017 @06:21AM (#14629420)

That’s the marketing site; the actual app where you read your email definitely doesn’t have Google Analytics.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by emodendroket on Friday June 23, 2017 @01:51PM (#14621158)

Google isn't just an e-mail service, really.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by thomasfoster96 on Friday June 23, 2017 @02:07PM (#14621320)

But… you don’t really have to use Gmail to use most of Google’s other products, just as you don’t really have to use (actively) Google+ to use other Google products either.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by StreamBright on Friday June 23, 2017 @02:43PM (#14621629)

Unfortunately no. You are going to be tracked whereever you go and it has GA. The reason why Google can stop reading your emails is because they have a global network now that can track you better.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by emodendroket on Friday June 23, 2017 @02:16PM (#14621388)

But imagine you use an Android phone, for instance. There's a whole bunch of integrated stuff that works well together that wouldn't if you had a Google account and then kept your e-mail somewhere else. It's not really a 1:1 comparison.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by EGreg on Friday June 23, 2017 @02:17PM (#14621390)

You can, it's called Google Apps for Business.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by mojowo11 on Friday June 23, 2017 @05:47PM (#14623034)

Not to be pedantic, but it's called "G Suite" nowadays.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by euyyn on Friday June 23, 2017 @07:05PM (#14623408)

> all of Google's partners who can purchase our data

I'm pretty sure that's the empty set.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by oh_sigh on Friday June 23, 2017 @01:37PM (#14621052)

Ads benefit both you and the other group that they connect you. You finding out about, say, a product you are interested benefits you.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by jodrellblank on Saturday June 24, 2017 @03:01AM (#14624690)

http://www.talkingnewmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/ou...

http://moneyinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/nypostoutbrai...

Benefitting. You.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B2044DNCEAAHmu-.png

The next time you want to buy, say, 9 celebs in open relationships.

http://www.cpawealthacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/R...

This is what ads are. This is what we adblock. This is clickbait, lies, manipulation, visually distracting, space wasting, untrustworthy, barrel scraping garbage.

"Ads inform you about products" in the same way slime mould informs you that your house is too damp. The best individual course of action is not to buy what the mould is selling.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by gpm on Friday June 23, 2017 @02:24PM (#14621432)

In a perfect world, yes. In the real world ads are about manipulating through every psychological trick in the book to buy shit you don't need. To manipulate you into thinking brand A is better than brand B (both of which you were already aware of). Etc.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by CaptSpify on Friday June 23, 2017 @01:41PM (#14621088)

In theory, yes

In actuality: they are a waste of my time and mental space

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by Ajedi32 on Friday June 23, 2017 @02:25PM (#14621438)

That's true in the sense that having no ads at all would be better; but if you're going to be seeing ads either way, why wouldn't you want them to be ads for things relevant to your interests?

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by CaptSpify on Friday June 23, 2017 @03:49PM (#14622213)

Why would I be seeing ads either way? I generally don't see them at all.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by Ajedi32 on Friday June 23, 2017 @04:37PM (#14622558)

Whether you block ads or not is kinda beside the point. It's a little unreasonable to expect Google or anyone else to stop personalizing the ads they're trying to serve you just based on the fact that you're blocking them.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by oh_sigh on Friday June 23, 2017 @02:02PM (#14621270)

I'll agree that most ads are junk and not relevant to a users life, but that doesn't mean all ads are.

Having said that, I've never clicked on an ad in Gmail since 2004 or so.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by roywiggins on Friday June 23, 2017 @01:47PM (#14621137)

That's just a rare side-effect, not the reason why the scanning happens, or why the ads are shown.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by oh_sigh on Friday June 23, 2017 @01:59PM (#14621248)

The ads are shown exactly for that reason. If the only ads shown were for products or services or information which the consumer was not interested in, then no one would pay for advertisements in the first place.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by coldpie on Friday June 23, 2017 @02:07PM (#14621314)

Apparently spreading malware is pretty high value, actually.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by throwaway2048 on Friday June 23, 2017 @01:54PM (#14621201)

Out of curiosity do you work in advertising tech or marketing?

They are about the only people I've ever seen express this view seriously.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by oh_sigh on Friday June 23, 2017 @01:58PM (#14621240)

Nope - I am a developer working on a consumer oriented application with no advertisements.

I'm not trying to say that all ads give you that benefit - most are just a waste of screen space, compute and bandwidth.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by majewsky on Friday June 23, 2017 @04:29PM (#14622501)

Even if I agreed that some ads have benefit, the cost-benefit analysis (with costs including screen space, compute, bandwidth and the malware threat) still looks grim enough to justify adblocking IMO.

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by soperj on Friday June 23, 2017 @01:41PM (#14621087)

What if you're buddhist?

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by jodrellblank on Saturday June 24, 2017 @03:18AM (#14624723)

"Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes while being informed about ten local places to purchase God with next-day delivery."

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by sqeaky on Friday June 23, 2017 @02:51PM (#14621709)

There are many flavors of Buddhism, which one matters here for the point you are making?

EDIT - I am not sure why I am being downvote, I legitimately don't get his point and figured I would for more info rather than just calling him out as a troll or something. Is there something obvious I should know?

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Re:Google Will Stop Reading Your Emails for Gmail Ads by CaptSpify on Friday June 23, 2017 @07:31PM (#14623524)

Disclaimer: I know nothing of Buddhism, I haven't even read the Wikipedia page

I believe some Buddhism teaches something along the lines of: personal possessions are bad, and freedom is found in not owning anything.

I think OP is saying: advertising goes directly against that line of thinking. It is actually tempting a Buddhist to buy more stuff, thus going against their religion.

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