Google have announced a surprising change to their services, choosing to end a practise which they have embraced since 2005, as they revealed that from later this year, they will no longer search Gmail accounts for targeted advertisements.
This decision was outlined in a blog post by Google cloud computing chief Diane Greene, who joined the company in 2015 and has played a huge part in the rapid growth of Google’s cloud business.
Gmail host more than 1.2 billion users worldwide, and Google’s decision to end this practise will bring this popular email service in line with its enterprise offering G Suite. Google’s G Suite business bundle have been gaining more enterprise user in the past year, with more than 3 million companies now paying for the G Suite service.
Previously, Google has been under fire for their practise of analysing incoming and outgoing emails of Gmail users, and has been heavily criticized by their competitors on privacy concerns. With Google’s cloud business growing rapidly, the company is beginning to move into a different direction, and this move seems like a wise decision. Google have acted to ensure they have effective legislation before the newest GDPR regulation takes place, allowing them to focus productively on selling their services.