Is Google stealing your garden furniture?
I first started to realize how dangerous social media was a few years ago.
I was on the phone with a friend and I could feel his growing sense of outrage. “I can’t believe it,” he said. “Google is reading my mail. They targeted me with ads that could only have come from specific words I’d used in a confidential letter I sent to my lawyer.
“It’s like they came into my yard and stole the garden furniture!”
Google analyzed the contents of the letter, which was sent through Gmail. It then bundled the contents with other private data and sold it for targeted advertising purposes. It’s big business for them.