The problem of online security and privacy increases with great speeds as giants like Google Facebook and so on are accessing more of our personal data. Knowing that the public is fearing the loss of privacy, Google CEO Sundar Pichai attempted to win over Google users that found out about the fact that Google is tracking online shopping of all its users.
Google Plays Dumb, But It Knows More Than We Thought
Google has kept a record of our online purchases via Gmail, by utilizing bots to scan inboxes for received receipts and order confirmations. What this resulted in is a comprehensive digital history of everyone’s online acquisitions, which started right at the creation of the Gmail account.
Google tracking online shopping is the most recent high risk of online security. Responding to users’ concern about it, a Google official claimed that the feature was there to ‘help users view and track their purchases, bookings, and subscriptions in one place.’ Is it so?
The spokesperson kept mentioning that this information can be erased at any time; however, it is not as easy as you would think.
It is Not Ad Personalization
As we said earlier, deleting the purchase history is not easy. Cleaning it requires you to erase each record individually, which is an incredibly horrendous and slow process.
Todd Haselton from CNBS also found out that erasing your emailed receipts and order confirmations to delete the history of the acquisitions won’t function either. After deleting all the emails on his Gmail account, Haselton discovered that the purchase history was still there, unbothered, and his transactions were clearly visible on Google’s servers.
Perhaps the best method to prevent this to happen is to deny Google access to your mailbox. However, in cases like these, the possibility to disable the functionality is nonexistent.
Even though Google keeps denying that it uses purchase data for curating ads as an element of its ad business, the information can help with user profiles. It is highly possible that Google will use this data in the future because the company’s terms of service enable them to do so.
Daniel Kiss is the senior editor for News Lair. Daniel was working as a writer since he finished high-school, first for local papers then he started online, nowadays he likes to write about the latest games and tech innovations.
