Think your Gmail is secure? App developers are sifting through your inbox

Even after assurances, Google continues to let software developers scan hundreds of millions of emails of users who sign up for email-based services

Google said a year ago it would stop its computers from scanning the inboxes of Gmail users for information to personalise advertisements, saying it wanted users to “remain confident that Google will keep privacy and security paramount.”

But the internet giant continues to let hundreds of outside software developers scan the inboxes of millions of Gmail users who signed up for email-based services offering shopping price comparisons, automated travel-itinerary planners or other tools. Google does little to police those developers, who train their computers—and, in some cases, employees—to read their users’ emails, a Wall Street Journal examination has found.

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