Google Admits Giving Hundreds of Firms Access to Your Gmail Inbox

Third party developers can scan data and even share it with other third parties 

By Anthony Cuthbertson

Hundreds of apps are able to scan and share data from the email inboxes of Gmail accounts, Google has revealed.

In a letter to US lawmakers, which was made public on Thursday, Google explained that third-party developers are able to both access and share data from Gmail accounts – though the company said it thoroughly vets any third parties that are granted access.

The inbox scanning takes place despite Google ending its own controversial email-scanning practice a year ago.

"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, Google's head of US public policy, wrote in the letter, which was first seen by the Wall Street Journal.

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Source: The Independent