More on Google Mail and privacy

We built Google Mail to be the best and most useful webmail service in the world. A free service for anyone who wants it. And we built it with users' privacy in mind. Google takes privacy very seriously. We are very upfront about our policies and we welcome a discussion of user experience and public policy as it relates to the Internet, email and our services. Read on for additional details.

Topics in detail

• Privacy in email
• Targeted ads in Google Mail
• Scanning email content
• Rights of senders and recipients
• Data retention
• Protecting your privacy
• Google Mail and Government Access to Account Information
• Conclusion

Privacy in email

In personal email communications, there has always been, and always should be, an expectation of privacy between the sender and the intended recipients of a message, enabling open communication with friends, colleagues, family and others.

Privacy is compromised, however, if personal information or private email content is shared with parties other than the sender and intended recipients without their consent. This is not the case when people use Google Mail. Google does not share or reveal email content or personal information with third parties. Email messages remain strictly between the sender and intended recipients, even when only one of the parties is a Google Mail user.

Of course, the law and common sense dictate some exceptions. These exceptions include requests by users that Google's support staff access their email messages in order to diagnose problems; when Google is required by law to do so; and when we are compelled to disclose personal information because we reasonably believe it's necessary in order to protect the rights, property or safety of Google, its users and the public. For full details, please refer to the "Information sharing" section of our privacy policy. These exceptions are standard across the industry and are necessary for email providers to assist their users and to meet legal requirements.

Targeted ads in Google Mail

All major free webmail services carry advertising and most of it is irrelevant to the people who see it. Some services which compete with Google Mail attempt to target their ads at users based on their demographic profile (e.g. gender, income level or family status). Google believes that showing relevant advertising offers more value to users than displaying random pop-ups or untargeted banner ads. In Google Mail, users will see text ads and links to related pages that are relevant to the content of their messages. The links to related pages are similar to Google search results and are culled from Google's extensive index of web pages. They are selected solely for their helpfulness and are not paid advertisements.

Ads and links to related pages only appear alongside the message that they are targeted to and are only shown when the Google Mail user, whether the sender or recipient, is viewing that particular message. No email content or other personally identifiable information is ever shared with advertisers. In fact, advertisers do not even know how often their ads are shown in Google Mail, as this data is aggregated across thousands of sites in the Google Network.

By offering Google Mail users relevant ads and information related to the content of their messages, we aim to offer users a better webmail experience. For example, if you and your friends are planning a holiday, you may want to see news items or travel ads about the destination that you're considering.

To ensure a quality user experience for all Google Mail users, we avoid showing ads reflecting sensitive or inappropriate content by only showing ads that have been classified as "Family-Safe". Google Mail's filters also block ads from running next to messages about catastrophic events or tragedies, erring on the side of not displaying an ad if the content is questionable.

Many people have found that the search-related ads on Google.com can be valuable--not merely a necessary evil, but a welcome feature. Similarly, many users have told us that they have found Google Mail's ads and related pages to be helpful because the information reflects their interests.

Scanning email content

All email services scan your email. They do this routinely to provide popular features such as spam filtering, virus detection, searching, spellchecking, forwarding, auto-responding, flagging urgent messages, converting incoming email into mobile phone text messages, automatic saving and sorting into folders, converting text URLs to clickable links and reading messages to the blind. These features are widely accepted, trusted and used by hundreds of millions of people every day.

Google scans the text of Google Mail messages in order to filter spam and detect viruses, just as all major webmail services do. Google also uses this scanning technology to deliver targeted text ads and other related information. This is completely automated and involves no humans.

When a user opens an email message, computers scan the text and then instantaneously display relevant information that is matched to the text of the message. Once the message is closed, ads are no longer displayed. It is important to note that the ads generated by this matching process are dynamically generated each time a message is opened by the user--in other words, Google does not attach particular ads to individual messages or to users' accounts.

When email messages are fully protected from unwanted disclosure, the automatic scanning of email does not amount to a violation of privacy. Neither email content nor any personal information is ever shared with other parties as a result of our ad-targeting process.

Rights of senders and recipients

Some people have expressed the concern that Google Mail may compromise the privacy of those who send email messages to Google Mail accounts, since the senders have not necessarily agreed to Google Mail's privacy policies or Terms of Use. Though it may seem plausible at first, this worry is based on a misunderstanding of how Google Mail actually works and ignores the fact that for senders and recipients alike, there is no privacy violation to begin with. Using Google Mail does not violate the privacy of senders since no-one other than the recipient is allowed to read their email messages and no-one but the recipient sees targeted ads and related information.

In an email exchange, both senders and recipients should have certain rights. Senders should have the right to decide who to send messages to, and to choose an email provider that they trust to deliver those messages. Recipients should also have certain rights, including the right to choose the method used to view their messages. Recipients should have the right to read their email any way they choose, whether through a web interface (like Google Mail, Yahoo! Mail, or Hotmail), a handheld device (like a BlackBerry or mobile phone), a software programme (such as Outlook), or even via a personal secretary.

On the Internet, senders are not required to consent to routine automatic processing of email content, such as for spam filtering or virus detection or the automatic flagging or filing of messages into folders based on content. Email providers essentially act as personal assistants for subscribers, holding and delivering their email messages and carrying out various tasks (such as deleting spam, removing viruses, enabling search or displaying related information). And of course, recipients have the right to forward, delete, print or distribute any message they receive.

By choosing to use Google Mail, users are seeing ads and related information that they could easily find by doing a web search using some of the keywords in their email. Google is simply presenting this information to them in a relevant and unobtrusive manner, while saving users the extra step of having to type keywords into a search engine.

There are also many scenarios in which a recipient will benefit from seeing ads and information related to an email message, without the sender's explicit consent. For example, if you receive an email offer from one local gym, there's value in seeing offers from other gyms nearby. The ability to see comparative advertising from different competitors is an important consumer right, even if the sender may not desire it.

We believe users have the right to choose a free, ad-supported webmail interface to read and send email. We believe that many users will choose the Google Mail option, with the full knowledge that this free service is supported by targeted advertising, and with confidence that Google is protecting the privacy of all of their email messages.

Data retention

Google keeps multiple backup copies of users' emails so that we can recover messages and restore accounts in case of errors or system failure, for some limited periods of time. Even if a message has been deleted or an account is no longer active, messages may remain on our backup systems for some limited period of time. This is standard practice in the email industry, which Google Mail and other major webmail services follow in order to provide a reliable service for users. We will make reasonable efforts to remove deleted information from our systems as quickly as is practical.

Protecting your privacy

Google takes privacy very seriously and your trust is important to us. Google Mail users should know:

1. Google does not share any email content or other personally identifiable information with advertisers.
2. No humans read any email messages to target advertising or related information that users may see on Google Mail.
3. Users only see unobtrusive, targeted ads alongside their Google Mail messages.

Google also takes several steps to guard the confidentiality of users' information by offering a number of industry-leading protections. Among other things, Google Mail users benefit from:

• Encrypted access (HTTPS) available via https://mail.google.com.
• An SSL-encrypted login by default. Your password is always encrypted when it is sent over the Internet.
• Blocked transmission of executable files, which often contain viruses or spyware that scanners may miss.
• No loading of external images by default. Many marketing or spam messages include hidden "web bugs" embedded in external images. Typically, when these images are loaded, the web bugs signal that the email address is active, thereby helping companies further perfect their recipient list for marketing or spam messages. Not loading external images helps to prevent this.
• Minimised "referrer" header information. When you click links in messages, the web browser that loads contains a referrer header. When you click links in Google Mail, Google takes steps to eliminate this referrer header, preventing others from knowing that you clicked a link from an email.

Google Mail and Government Access to Account Information

Google complies with valid legal process, such as search warrants, court orders or subpoenas seeking account information. These same processes apply to all law-abiding companies. As has always been the case, the primary protections that you have against intrusions by the government are the laws that apply to where you live.

Conclusion

Let's be clear: there are issues with email privacy and most of these issues are common to all email providers. The main issue is that the contents of your messages are stored on mail servers for some period of time; there is always a danger that these messages can be obtained and used for purposes that may harm you, such as possible misuse of your information by governments, as well as by your email provider. Careful consideration of the relevant issues, close scrutiny of email providers' practices and policies, and suitable vigilance and enforcement of appropriate legislation are the best defences against misuse of your information. We encourage users and interested groups around the world to share their thoughts on our policies and procedures by writing to us at privacymatters+googlemail@google.com.

Updated: January 2008