Last year, a report disclosed how third-party applications and developers can view your emails and read them easily. Although it is a bit complicated for them to do so, it is pretty easy to see which apps can access your Gmail account.
The news was broken by a report published by the Wall Street Journal. The report makes some shocking revelations about the technology industry.
Google has ensured that all its employees will not read users’ emails except for some specific cases. However, no assurances were built regarding third-party applications and developers.
In a statement given to The Verge, Google mentions that it investigates and vets third-party companies before giving them the aptitude and skill to read emails. These third-party companies include Return Path and Edison Software. But, they violate the user contract and interpret the emails. Moreover, many applications don’t ask for explicit permission. However, they claim to have it anyway, and when they agreed to an elongated user agreement, they decided not to read any emails.
If you’re worried about your emails and want to protect your emails from third-party access, don’t worry. We are providing you with some tips which would help stop third-party apps from reading your emails. Let’s find out more about it.
How Private Emails Get Access?
Many third-party developers set up their online services in a way that adds extra functions to Gmail. All such services allow extending email features like comparing prices of various web shops or quickly canceling users’ subscriptions to marketing emails. An API designed by Google is available for this particular purpose.
Any effort or attempt to use such apps demands the user agree on the consent it needs. When users give such approvals, the applications and their developers can read received and sent emails.
It is essential to note that tracking email content is beneficial to those firms and cooperation interested in obtaining data on users’ purchases, habits, and paths.
As a whole, it is a legal practice because all these subjects are precise in User Agreements. But, still, the experts emphasize that users investigate the developers who get access to read their email.
Tips to Protect My Gmail from Third-Party Apps:
Follow the tips below if you want tips/techniques to protect your Gmail account from preventing third-party apps from reading your emails. Mentioned below are three quick tips by which you can stop third-party apps from reading your emails. Have a look:
Use Security Checkup Tool
The security checkup was one of the best ways to disclose the sign-in technique and the idea of getting back control of your account.
You must sign in to your Google Account and handle specific settings to use this tool. To proceed further, click the squares in the page’s upper right corner. Select Account from the drop-down list and click Continue to find the Security Checkup tab. By clicking on this option, you allow viewing the number of devices signed in your Account. Moreover, it also informs and updates you about any security issues over 28 days.
The tool works efficiently and reveals the number of applications accessing your data. Google removes the app and prevents any expected privacy issues when it is no longer used.
Review Approvals
The Gmail user needs to pay close attention to the approvals and permissions allotted to the application. When an app is ready to gain access to your Google account, it should clear all the access details: sending, reading, removing, and managing all the emails. All of which is often designed by any other party other than Google.
By doing so, they would ease and enable a decision taken by the user whether the app is to get access to the user’s Gmail account or not.
Control Consents
You need to repeat the steps you performed while using the security checkup tool to use this tool. First, go to Accounts options, click the squares at the upper right corner, and select Account from the drop-down list. Continue with Sign-in and Security to Apps with account Access.
Lastly, click on the enable tab, which allows tracking of applications or services with access to your Google Account. It removes anything unreliable which sounds suspicious. The options reveal the passwords saved, including that Google Smart Lock can easily preserve and maintain. Moreover, you can also remove any doubtful or invalid feature at once.
Conclusion
The modern, digital world needs additional preventive measures toward various User Agreements. It also includes permission to provide third-party apps and developers with our consensus. Due to this, all the third-party apps and developers can quickly view and read all our emails. At the same time, you are not at all aware of it.
You can also shift towards using the best VPN services, hiding your ID, and encrypting your traffic data. It encrypts not only your traffic but also all email communications. It allows you to use the internet in a safe and secure environment.
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About the Author
Rebecca James is an IT consultant with forward thinking approach toward developing IT infrastructures of SMEs. She writes to engage with individuals and raise awareness of digital security, privacy, and better IT infrastructure.
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