Google Tracks User Purchasers via Gmail
| Google Tracks User Purchasers via Gmail | |
|---|---|
| Short Title | Google Uses Gmail to Track a History of Things One Buys |
| Location | Global |
| Date | May 2019 |
| Solove Harm | Surveillance, Aggregation |
| Information | Behavioral, Identifying, Transactional, Contact |
| Threat Actors | |
| Individuals | |
| Affected | Gmail users |
| High Risk Groups | |
| Tangible Harms | |
Google saves years of information on purchases people make, even outside Google, and pulls this information from Gmail.
Description
Google tracks a lot of what users buy, even if they purchased it elsewhere, like in a store or from Amazon. Surveillance
A page called “Purchases” in Gmail shows an accurate list of many of the things a user bought. The list includes purchases made through online services or apps such as Amazon, DoorDash or Seamless, or in stores such as Macy’s, but never directly through Google. Aggregation
But because the digital receipts go to the Gmail account, Google has a list of info about user buying habits. There is no way to delete this information from Purchases without also deleting them from Gmail.
Google says it doesn’t use this information to sell ads. However, there’s no clear reason why Google would need to track years of purchases and make it hard to delete that information.
Laws and Regulations
Sources
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/17/google-gmail-tracks-purchase-history-how-to-delete-it.html