PRIVACY: Google Says It Continues to Allow Apps to Scan Data From Gmail Accounts.
In a letter to senators, a top Google official said the company allows app developers to scan Gmail accounts, even though Google itself stopped the practice for the purpose of ad targeting last year. The company also disclosed that app developers generally are free to share the data with others, as long as Google determines that their privacy policies adequately disclose potential uses.
“Developers may share data with third parties so long as they are transparent with the users about how they are using the data,” Susan Molinari, the company’s vice president for public policy and government affairs for the Americas, wrote in the letter. She added that the company, a unit of Alphabet Inc., makes sure the relevant privacy policy is “easily accessible to users to review before deciding whether to grant access.”
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between China’s social credit system, data being collected off android phones and genealogy companies sharing your genetic info with big pharma looks like we’re headed into a privatized, digital dystopian age.
CULTURE OF SEARCH-ENGINE CORRUPTION: Google Workers Discussed Tweaking Search Function to Counter Trump Travel Ban. “Days after the Trump administration instituted a controversial travel ban in January 2017, Google employees discussed ways they might be able to tweak the company’s search-related functions to show users how to contribute to pro-immigration organizations and contact lawmakers and government agencies, according to internal company emails.”
h/t WarOfNoise