Friday, May 07, 2004
Exploiting GMail's ad selection mechanism: Get ready for Google-footing | The Register
Google's new GMail really is causing a storm... first of all we had people worried about their privacy because GMail scans your mail and uses it to show you relevant ads. Now there's a new worry: what happens when people start trying to deliberately exploit this mechanism for their own gain? Companies vying for our business might be willing to pay large sums to get their ads triggered by emails from rival firms - imagine, you get an email from your bank, and down the side is a big ad for a competitor offering you a better savings rate. The cynic in me wonders if this is what Google had in mind from the beginning...
Google's new GMail really is causing a storm... first of all we had people worried about their privacy because GMail scans your mail and uses it to show you relevant ads. Now there's a new worry: what happens when people start trying to deliberately exploit this mechanism for their own gain? Companies vying for our business might be willing to pay large sums to get their ads triggered by emails from rival firms - imagine, you get an email from your bank, and down the side is a big ad for a competitor offering you a better savings rate. The cynic in me wonders if this is what Google had in mind from the beginning...
(c) 2003-2005 Russell Beale
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