Google Knows What You’ve Purchased by Scanning Your Emails
• Twitter users have discovered that Gmail is scanning email receipts to link non-Google purchases to a user’s Google account
• Google uses this data to list individual purchases inside a user’s Google account and also shows additional information for some purchases
• It’s not clear how long Google has been collecting this purchase data or how to opt-out of this data collection
Users on Twitter have come across a creepy Google feature called “Purchases” which lists a user’s non-Google purchases inside their Google account.
Source: Twitter.com – @simonw
The data shows individual purchases and supporting information for some purchases which can include subscription details and estimated fulfillment times for physical goods.
Google says that the sources for this purchase data include “order receipts or confirmations received in Gmail” and Twitter users have confirmed that some of their purchase data was sourced from Gmail.
Source: Twitter.com – @dlitchfield
You can currently view this “Purchases” data inside your own Google account by selecting the “Manage purchases” option under the “Payments and subscriptions” section of myaccount.google.com. You can also see the source for each purchase by selecting “Info” and then “Where’s this from?”
Source: MyAccount.Google.com
It’s unclear how long Google has been collecting this data but one Twitter user claims their account shows five years of purchase data.
Source: Twitter.com – @texmandie
Some Twitter users are also suggesting that this ”Purchases” data is not collected on GSuite accounts.
Source: Twitter.com – @russss and @felix_cohen
Google does explain how to delete certain pieces of purchase data on its support page but it’s not clear how deleting this data impacts future purchase data collection or if it’s possible to opt-out of this data collection completely.
Here’s a summary of the purchase data you can delete:
- Subscription Data: Google says you can unlink subscriptions and when you do this, you’ll no longer see personalization based on your subscriptions in Google products.
- Order Data: Google says that certain order data can be deleted directly and other order data can be managed in the original service.
- My Activity: Google says information about your orders may also be saved with your activity in other Google services. This data can be viewed and deleted in the “My Activity” section of your Google account.
Unsurprisingly, many Gmail users are creeped out by this data collection and some are moving to alternative email providers. Other users had no idea this data was even being collected.
Source: Twitter.com – @davesio
Source: Twitter.com – @tobym
Source: Twitter.com @gabi__voicu
Overall, this “Purchases” data revelation is yet another stark reminder of just how much intimate information Google collects about us on auto-pilot.
So, if you’re not happy with this data collection and want to switch to an email provider that respects your privacy, try FastMail. It has lots of advanced email management features, it has super-fast web and mobile apps, and most importantly – it doesn’t scan or mine your emails or personal data.