Google will no longer scan your Gmail for ad targeting

Gmail is the de facto standard for personal email accounts, with more than more than 1.2 billion people using the free service. One criticism, however, is that Google scans your email for keywords so it can better target ads directly to you. Not anymore, though. Just like Google did away with email scanning in the G Suite enterprise version of Gmail, it will do the same for the consumer app. The new rule will go into effect later this year. Google's Diane Greene makes it fairly clear in a blog post: "Consumer Gmail content will not be used or scanned for any ads personalization after this change."

Of course, Google will still collect data from you in many other ways, including your search history, the websites you visit, videos you watch on YouTube, ads you click on, your location on Google-connected devices and more. Facebook and Apple have similar practices as well, so don't think you're getting away from it if you use the internet. The new Gmail data scanning policies just bring the consumer version of Gmail more in line with the rest of Google's products and services. You can, of course, change what you allow Google to see and use at any time within your Google account.

:story: Endgadget