Google to End Scanning Consumer Gmail Inboxes for Targeted Ads

Google has announced it’s done with scanning your consumer Gmail inbox for personalized ads, a move to make the latter in line with its G Suite email service, which is not used for ads personalization.

In a company blog post, SVP of Google Cloud, Diane Greene, writes “G Suite’s Gmail is already not used as input for ads personalization, and Google has decided to follow suit later this year in our free consumer Gmail service. Consumer Gmail content will not be used or scanned for any ads personalization after this change.”

This change means Gmail ads will now be in line with “how we personalize ads for other Google products.” She says “Ads shown are based on users’ settings. Users can change those settings at any time, including disabling ads personalization.”

Google’s G Suite has over 3 million paying companies using the service, and it will continue to be ad free.

Gmail has over 1.2 billion users worldwide, and these “users can remain confident that Google will keep privacy and security paramount as we continue to innovate.”

The company’s Gmail iOS app was recently updated to include a Smart Reply feature from their Inbox email app, while also started to show ‘card view’ for online purchases, flight bookings, restaurant reservations and more.

[via Bloomberg]

P.S. - Like our news? Support the site with a coffee/beer. Or shop with our Amazon link. We use affiliate links when possible--thank you for supporting independent media.