Gmail’s targeted ads exploited reader privacy for profit from 2004 launch

Evidence

Why did Google’s Gmail, launched in 2004, scan private correspondence to generate advertising? As soon as the first Gmail user saw the first ad targeted to the content of her private correspondence, public reaction was swift. Many were repelled and outraged; others were confused. As Google chronicler Steven Levy put it, “By serving ads related to content, Google seemed almost to be reveling in the fact that users’ privacy was at the mercy of the policies and trustworthiness of the company that owned the servers. And since those ads made profits, Google was making it clear that it would exploit the situation.” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 147

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader behavioral surplus argument of the book and to the Attention/Platform/Surveillance reading theme. — connects to: Google shifted advertising from matching keywords to targeting individual users — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 231; Behavioral ad targeting crossed Schmidt’s creepy line into exploiting targeted weaknesses — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1081

Broader Connections

• Google shifted advertising from matching keywords to targeting individual users #expands (0.93) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 231
• Behavioral ad targeting crossed Schmidt’s creepy line into exploiting targeted weaknesses #epitomizes (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1081