CNBC: “Google uses Gmail to track a history of things you buy — and it’s hard to delete”

Last week, CEO Sundar Pichai wrote a New York Times op-ed that said “privacy cannot be a luxury good”. But behind the scenes, Google is still collecting a lot of personal information from the services you use, such as Gmail, and some of it can’t be easily deleted.

A page called “Purchases” shows an accurate list of many — though not all — of the things I’ve bought dating back to at least 2012. I made these purchases using online services or apps such as Amazon, DoorDash or Seamless, or in stores such as Macy’s, but never directly through Google.

But because the digital receipts went to my Gmail account, Google has a list of info about my buying habits.

Todd Haselton & Megan Graham

Interesting story, but I don’t think it warrants the alarmist tone the authors write into it. After all, many companies collect data as you make online purchases, from the store owner to the payment provider, the delivery company, your bank, etc. Even Apple is launching a detailed breakdown of purchases made with the new Apple Card – that feature is also matching purchases with your location and I don’t remember anyone complaining about privacy implications or that you can’t delete specific items in the list.

I’ve checked my own ‘Purchases’ page and… it contains a single item, an app I paid for as I switched to Android last summer. Grated, I have very few of my online shopping accounts linked to my Gmail account – I use Outlook email for that. On top of that, I doubt Google has the ability to recognize Romanian stores and bills (yet). Could it be that this page simply lists transactions made through Google Pay? In that sense it would be just like an account statement from the bank.