Image Credit: SlashGear
“You just bought pizza? Wanna buy twelve more?”
If you’ve ever wondered why your browser seems to show you a lot more gaming ads after you’ve just bought a console, you may have your answer.
A recent report from CNBC revealed some unsurprising but still alarming details about how Google tracks our personal data.
According to the report, Google can actually use its mail app, Gmail, in order to track all our expenses via the receipts that are sent to our mail. Gmail logs all of these purchases and stores it on its servers, which means that Google could theoretically see each and every single purchase we’ve ever made without us knowing.
Worse, the information stored in our accounts is very detailed. In the case of online purchases, this could contain the online store we bought from, the date and time when we bought the item, the order ID of our purchase, the delivery status and process, and of course, the actual product or service sold.
This news is alarming for a variety of reasons. One, Google could easily use this data in the company’s research. This isn’t exactly bad, per se, but the mere fact that they didn’t ask us for consent makes it unwelcome. Second, Google could also sell the data to advertisers– which it may already be doing now. Targeted ads are becoming more and more prevalent these days, and this becomes possible thanks to all the information that Google has on you.
However, Google remains firm that it doesn’t use the data for advertising purposes. In a statement to The Verge, the company says, “You can delete this information at any time. We don’t use any information from your Gmail messages to serve you ads, and that includes the email receipts and confirmations shown on the Purchase page.”
