Google Uses Gmail To Track a History of Things You Buy -- and It's Hard To Delete (cnbc.com) 140
CNBC's Todd Haselton has discovered that Google saves years of information on the purchases you've made, even outside Google, and pulls this information from Gmail. An anonymous reader shares the report: A page called "Purchases" shows an accurate list of many -- though not all -- of the things I've bought dating back to at least 2012. I made these purchases using online services or apps such as Amazon, DoorDash or Seamless, or in stores such as Macy's, but never directly through Google. But because the digital receipts went to my Gmail account, Google has a list of info about my buying habits. Google even knows about things I long forgot I'd purchased, like dress shoes I bought inside a Macy's store on Sept. 14, 2015.
But there isn't an easy way to remove all of this. You can delete all the receipts in your Gmail inbox and archived messages. But, if you're like me, you might save receipts in Gmail in case you need them later for returns. There is no way to delete them from Purchases without also deleting them from Gmail -- when you click on the "Delete" option in Purchases, it simply guides you back to the Gmail message. Google's privacy page says that only you can view your purchases. But it says "Information about your orders may also be saved with your activity in other Google services " and that you can see and delete this information on a separate "My Activity" page. Except you can't. Google's activity controls page doesn't give you any ability to manage the data it stores on Purchases. Google says you can turn off the tracking entirely, but when CNBC tried this, it didn't work.
Google says it doesn't use your Gmail to show you ads and promises it "does not sell your personal information, which includes your Gmail and Google Account information," and does "not share your personal information with advertisers, unless you have asked us to."
But there isn't an easy way to remove all of this. You can delete all the receipts in your Gmail inbox and archived messages. But, if you're like me, you might save receipts in Gmail in case you need them later for returns. There is no way to delete them from Purchases without also deleting them from Gmail -- when you click on the "Delete" option in Purchases, it simply guides you back to the Gmail message. Google's privacy page says that only you can view your purchases. But it says "Information about your orders may also be saved with your activity in other Google services " and that you can see and delete this information on a separate "My Activity" page. Except you can't. Google's activity controls page doesn't give you any ability to manage the data it stores on Purchases. Google says you can turn off the tracking entirely, but when CNBC tried this, it didn't work.
Google says it doesn't use your Gmail to show you ads and promises it "does not sell your personal information, which includes your Gmail and Google Account information," and does "not share your personal information with advertisers, unless you have asked us to."
who bought white shoes after labor day? (Score:3)
there is someone at google looking at your purchase history and laughing at you with the rest of the geeks there
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The only thing I get is "You don't have any purchases".
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The only thing I get is "You don't have any purchases".
Me too. But then, I’ve turned every setting Google offers to “off” for as long as I’ve known they exist; plus most of my personal email hasn’t gone through Google’s servers at all for at least five years.
most of my personal email hasnâ(TM)t gone thr (Score:3)
It goes through The Goog if you email someone else with a gmail address...
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The only thing I get is "You don't have any purchases"
Yes, the anonymous article didn't mention that you need to turn this on first.
At the purchases page, click the left arrow to go back a screen. Go to data&personalization then scroll down to Ad personalization. That needs to be on first.
Then you can click "go to ad settings" and turn on or off each place you want receipts in gmail to show in the purchasing screen.
None of these defaulted to on for very old accounts. Also if you turned of the ad function in any service it will be off here too.
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Same here, turned off and I've got purchases dating back to 2014.
Re: who bought white shoes after labor day? (Score:1)
I started paying a couple dollar per month for a Fastmail account a few years ago.
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What (Score:2)
The hell are you doing? Using gmail for your financial record file cabinet?
Maybe stop doing that.
Fortunately, I do not use Gmail (Score:5, Informative)
Seriously, all who are surprised by this are at least very naive. Google does not have anything valuable in products, except ads. All their other stuff serves to target ads, nothing else.
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Yeah, but what are you gonna do, pay $15 a year for a real email service?
Better just to take the "free" one and then act surprised when they screw you over!
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Yes. I pay $60/yr for ProtonMail, and I'm very happy with it.
Re: Fortunately, I do not use Gmail (Score:1)
ProtonMail routes all email through Israel for no reason that I can discern. âoeEncryptedâ email that you donâ(TM)t control is a stupid idea anyway. I had Hushmail for a few years, but the encrypted email feature isnâ(TM)t very helpful. Benefits are that theyâ(TM)re in Canada (so maybe they require a warrant to share your data), and you can trust that they get the basics of security and operations right (probably true for proton mail too). But whom ever you choose will have access t
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Well, I run my own mail server. But $15 is pretty much nothing. If you are unwilling to spend that, you have no right to complain.
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TFA is unbelievably dumb.
"OMFG Gmail has all my personal emails!!!11"
No shit, that's what Gmail is. And the author is then surprised that it offers different views, including one that shows all the receipts you have. And is then even more shocked to learn that if you don't want an email to appear in Gmail you have to DELETE it!
Just don't show him Google Calendar, his head will explode.
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Well, I have bad news for you. All "free" email providers have to make money somehow, and targeting ads at you is how they do it.
If that bothers you, pay for email.
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Or run your own servers. Not that expensive and quite instructive. Most people will just want to pay a nominal fee for Email instead. It is really not expensive.
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TFA is unbelievably dumb.
Indeed.
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Seriously, all who are surprised by this are at least very naive.
Not naive, but rather completely and utterly ignorant. This was discussed over 10 years ago when Gmail announced they would be scanning emails for advertisement purposes.
What did people think they were talking about?
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What did people think they were talking about?
I've come to believe that the main reason for scanning the emails isnt to advertise products to the user, it is instead to advertise the user to product sellers.
..and no, nobody had this theory back then.
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Google didn't sell products back then. You're right, no one had the theory back then, they simply knew it as fact. Google has been the preferred data peddler since before Gmail was even in beta, their scope was just more limited due to lack of complete ownership of homes and devices.
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Google didn't sell products back then
What does that have to do with googles advertising, which it absolutely did back then?
The point seems to have wooshed over your head. Everyone thought google was going to scrape your email to find out your interests and needs for the purpose of advertising. Nobody expected google to scrape your emails to identify the rash spending whales, which are far more valuable than even a thousand typical people (most people still dont buy much shit online)
Maybe you are from one of those west coast paradises wher
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Seriously, all who are surprised by this are at least very naive. Google does not have anything valuable in products, except ads. All their other stuff serves to target ads, nothing else.
Obviously you have used the gmail interface. What a mess.
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I think I did. Once.
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I know they know everything about me. But choosing not to use GMail won't make a difference. They know every Web link I click anyway, because every site out there voluntarily sends click info to Google. I'll bet they have all YOUR data even though you DON'T use GMail!
I'd rather have my personal info int he hands of a big company that everybody is watching, than some small upstart that makes big promises but who knows what they're REALLY doing in their server rooms...probably selling data to Google.
It says how to delete an item on the page (Score:2)
Re:It says how to delete an item on the page (Score:5, Insightful)
Except those email receipts are financial records. Some of them might be important.
Re:It says how to delete an item on the page (Score:5, Insightful)
So export them somewhere safe and THEN delete them. Do we have to tell you how to do everything?
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You mean export them out of an easy database that keeps track of origin, and date and provides text search into "somewhere safe"?
No please don't tell me how to do everything. Your ideas suck and create an incredible amount of work.
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And somehow you believe Google will not keep the data anyway? And by saying "does not share your personal information with advertisers, unless you have asked us to." it really means that if you use their services, you ask them to sell the data.
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It really is as simple as this. The purchases view is essentially a condensed e-mail listing view showing only specific information from specific information. Remove the e-mail, and once the purchase view updates, it's removed from there.
For anyone who says you shouldn't have to delete the e-mail: if Google has the e-mail, they have the information, so what's the issue with whether you have two views or one for that same information?
For anyone who says Google will just retain the information internally af
Practice digital hygiene (Score:1, Interesting)
A page called "Purchases" shows an accurate list of many -- though not all -- of the things I've bought dating back to at least 2012
I would suggest that the author of this claim be a little more careful what they are logged in to when they make purchases (or do anything, in fact).
It turns out I have six gmail accounts. I make it a habit to explicitly log in to whichever one is relevant to a particular action and then to log out again, afterwards.
I just checked, Google knows about 3 purchases I made - all through the Play store. Two in 2013 and one in 2016. It knows nothing about the hundreds of purchases I have made through Amazon,
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This is like trying to minimize the toxic effects junk food has on your body by not going to McDonald's every day but also by going to Burger King, Five Guys, KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.
You're not outsmarting Google at all; if they can ghost profile me without an account do you really think they're unable to guess your six accounts are lin
Re:Practice digital hygiene (Score:5, Insightful)
If you aren't changing your proxy and browser fingerprint between each session, Google knows you're the exact same guy.
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I'm never 'logged in' to my gmail account, or anything else google. I use Outlook to retrieve my mail to my desktop.
This knows about purchases due to Amazon sending the confirmation and shipping emails. Which passes through gmail servers to be parsed and saved.
Break up Alphabet! (Score:5, Insightful)
It's time for President Trump to dust off Teddy Roosevelt's trust-busting stick. Alphabet has proven again and again that they have too much power and cannot be trusted. Alphabet is a malicious monopoly. They threaten not only free commence, but free society itself.
Break up Alphabet!
Search
Maps
Android
Chrome browser
Chrome OS
Advertising
Analytics
Docs
ALL separate companies. ALL kept separated by a strong legal firewall.
Break it up!
Re: Break up Alphabet! (Score:2, Offtopic)
Orange man BAD!!!!1!!!
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Why do people insist on stating the obvious?
Re:Break up Alphabet! (Score:5, Insightful)
That would make things much worse.
Gmail's costs would increase because it wouldn't be able to rely on Google's massive data storage system any more. It would have to sell your personal data because it would no longer have an advertising arm of its own, and for antitrust reasons it would have to sell it to anyone.
Same with all the other services. As long as they are part of Google your personal data when you use them is safe, because the value to Google comes from protecting it and not giving away it's most valuable asset. As soon as you break Google up it becomes like Facebook, reliant on selling the data to other companies to make money.
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Not enough.
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Regardless, he has *somewhat* of a point here but the other side of the coin is that having access to more GOOG tools means being able to paint a much more complet
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Breaking up Alphabet is one way to start solving the problem, but I think the principle of breaking up the monopolists (AKA corporate cancers) should be based on the principle of increasing freedom. The easiest algorithm I've come up with would involve a progressive profits tax based on market share. Actually, under that principle, it would be fine with me if Alphabet owned several of the competing companies, as long as their competition was sincere and we had the REAL freedom to choose among them.
On the to
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I went back through this branch and I still can't figure out who is talking to whom. However I can say that the original premise (having finally worked back to the OP) is critically flawed. Breaking up Alphabet in that way would accomplish exactly nothing.
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No thanks. One of the reasons I actually like Google is cross integration between the functions you list.
Though analytics and advertising can happily be broken out the rest has some actual end user benefits of remaining integrated.
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It's time for President Trump to dust off Teddy Roosevelt's trust-busting stick.
The problem here is that you don't understand that doing this wouldn't "fire up" his base, which he is counting on to keep him the President.
You are failing to recognize that he's a 10 out of 10 narcissist, not in an insulting manner but in a clinical one. President Trump is entirely egocentric and doesn't care if the things he's doing are good or bad for society but rather how they will benefit him.
That's probably not going to happen. (Score:2)
We started shifting the country to a right wing, pro-corporate bias in the 80s. Clinton moved the country hard right to get cosy with the banks and get the money he needed to run. We kept moving after that. Biden, for example, was picked for Obama's running mate because the corporations were worried Obama might push progressive policie
Re: That's probably not going to happen. (Score:1)
The primary voters can roll over or roll around in the mud if they like. If they're Democrats, what they do doesn't matter.
No purchases (Score:1)
Google does not have anything on the Purchases page for me
No Gmail (Score:5, Interesting)
I do not use Gmail or Yahoo's E-mail. I use a real ISP's mail system. Since I am retired and do not own a laptop or pad, I do not need IMAP. Instead, I use POP3, downloading all incoming messages which automatically deletes them from the ISP's server.
My primary E-mail is through an ISP that allows me to have several distinct E-mail addresses. For online purchases and E-mail receipts from in-store purchases, I use an address that is not my default. That secondary address keeps spam from filling my default Inbox.
I also have another ISP account with E-mail also received through POP3. I only use this account if my primary account is out of service.
I really do not understand why people would use Gmail and then complain about how Google and its Alphabet parent violate their privacy by scanning their E-mail.
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Re:No Gmail (Score:4, Insightful)
My primary E-mail is through an ISP
Let's see. Do we trust Google who have a vested interest in keeping data to themselves and only selling advertiser access to you, or do we trust ISPs who openly sell identifiable data wholesale?
That's before you consider the fact that I don't need yet another thing tying me to an ISP. I have to say your 90s era advice is as bad now as it was then. I hope you like vendor lock-in.
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I wish I had mod points to rate you higher.
For better or worse, I'm with Google precisely because they allow me to be ISP agnostic. For better or worse, they are the next best solution for me, with the best solution being to host my own email server of course.
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I am sure e-mail SPs and others keep copies of our e-mails even after you deleted them. :(
I don't have purchases and use google a lot (Score:2)
I suppose this has to do with using gsuite (originally google for domains back in 2006)
Read the ULA (Score:2)
Sure (Score:5, Insightful)
It also tracks your email to your girlfriend about the sex you have, if you have children, if you smoke cigars, go fishing, ...
That's why it was created, it says so in the user agreements that nobody reads.
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It also tracks your email to your girlfriend about the sex you have
I'm sure that's not a problem for most people here.
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Goggle promises...oh boy (Score:2)
Google says it doesn't use your Gmail to show you ads and promises it "does not sell your personal information"
Yes, and Hitler promised he wouldn't invade Poland. Sony promised that they'd never sell your data. Microsoft promised they'd never shutdown their "PlaysForSure" service.
Need I go on?
If a company says "We promise not to do (thing), you can bet your ass that they'll do (thing), if they haven't already done (thing).
Seriously, never believe anything a corporation tells you.
"and pulls this information from Gmail" (Score:2)
"and pulls this information from Gmail"
And this is why I only use my Gmail address as a contact point for employment and job hunting, never for anything else.
No purchases, no personal communications, etc. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if they'd managed to hoover up some purchase info and tie it to me.
Ads are worthless (Score:1)
Google can send me all the ads for another trailer hitch for my car all they want, I'm not going to buy another one.
Bogus report (Score:2)
I'm not impressed by the claim it tracks "many" of the things I buy. Maybe it does when you use your google account to identify yourself, maybe it does when you mindlessly click on every google ad you see, but the claim that it tracks your purchases is not accurate.
Suspicious Indeed........ (Score:1)
I'm trying to wrap my head around the purpose of aggregating your purchases using your emails if it's not for financial gain on Google's part. I discovered the "Purchases" area the other day while reviewing my Google security settings on a secondary account and was definitely thrown off. It showed purchases going back 3-5 years, many of which were related to my herbal hobby (college days... lol). Like the author stated in the article, the only way to delete my purchase history was to go through and delete t
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At some point all the bag of dicks candies I've ordered for people will get me on a watchlist. There's no way to walk that one back.
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It seems that this "privacy violation" is a problem only if you don't care and don't even have a minimal online behavior hygiene.
Like most I did not know about this "purchases page", so I have not taken any special measures beyond enabling the regular privacy settings.
Here's what's in my profile:
http://imgur.com/9teECNwl.png [imgur.com]
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Der Fuhrer's Penis was my favorite punk band.