The BBC reported earlier this afternoon that Google has confirmed that private emails sent and received by Gmail users can sometimes be read by third-party app developers. People who have connected third-party apps to their accounts may have unwittingly given external developers permission to read their messages.
Evgeny Chereshnev, CEO and Founder at Biolink.Tech:
“When a user connects through third party email applications, the application has access to all content because, technically, your connection to the email application is via the mail server where all emails are stored. So, it’s true that all third-party email applications have access to your Gmail accounts, if you connected them.
This type of access is going to going to continue, and people need to be aware that every time they connect to, or install, a third-party application on their mobile device, they are giving rights to those applications – often without even thinking about it. These applications gain access to users’ contacts, information about the user of the phone as well as things like GPS location, so this needs to be taken very seriously.
Now that GDPR is in force, a lot of effort needs to be taken to create awareness around cybersecurity and privacy among the general population, not just security specialists.”
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