Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote an op-ed for the New York Times last week arguing that privacy shouldn't be a luxury, blaming it on its competitors, most notably Apple. But the search giant itself continues to collect a lot of personal information using popular services like Gmail, and sometimes such data is not easy to remove.
Journalist Todd Haselton wrote in a CNBC article: βThe page titled (all Gmail owners can view their version) shows an accurate list of many, though not all, of the things I've bought since at least 2012. I made these purchases through online services or apps like Amazon, DoorDash, or Seamless, or stores like Macy's, but never through Google.
But since the digital checks were sent to my Gmail account, Google has a list of information about my shopping habits. Google even knows about things I forgot to buy a long time ago: for example, shoes purchased at Macy's on September 14, 2015. He also knows that:
- January 14, 2016 I ordered Cheesesteak at Cheez Whiz and Banana Pepper;
- I renewed my Starbucks card in November 2014;
- I bought a new Kindle on December 18, 2013 from Amazon;
- I bought Han Solo: Star Wars. Stories" on iTunes September 14, 2018."
A Google spokesperson told CNBC that the company has made the above page that collects in one place the user's purchases, orders, and subscriptions made using Gmail, Google Assistant, Google Play, and Google Express. This information can be deleted at any time and the search giant does not use this information to serve targeted ads.
But in reality, removing information is not so simple. The user can delete all purchase receipts from his mailbox and archived messages. But sometimes checks may be needed to return goods. However, data cannot be removed from the Purchased page without simultaneously deleting messages from Gmail. In addition, each purchase must be manually deleted from Gmail to get rid of this information.
On the privacy page, Google says that only the user can personally view their purchases. But it also says: βOrder information may be stored in your activity history on Google services. To check or delete this data, go to the page ". However, the Google Activity Control page does not give the user the ability to control the data that is stored in the "Purchases" section.
Google told CNBC that a user can turn off tracking entirely by going to the search settings settings page. For CNBC, however, this advice didn't work. Yes, Google states that it does not use Gmail to serve targeted ads and promises that it does not sell personal information about the user to third parties without permission. But for some reason, it collects all the information about purchases and puts it on a page that most people don't even seem to be aware of. Even if it's not used for advertising, it's not clear why a company would collect user purchase data for years and make it difficult to remove that information. However, Google told reporters that it would make managing that data easier.
Source: 3dnews.ru