It's likely that someone else in your Gmail inbox is reading someone else. And permission for this - probably without even guessing about it - you gave yourself. On how this is possible, wrote the day before The Wall Street Journal.

Google itself some time ago announced that it stops scanning user correspondence. However, the company did not forbid doing this to application developers for Gmail - software add-ons that extend the functionality of the mail service.

According to the newspaper, many developers use this opportunity actively, and it's not just about automatic scanning - many allow employees to literally read other people's letters. And formally everything is legal: permission to access is requested when you connect the application to your Gmail account, but, as a rule, is hidden deep in a multi-page user agreement.

Most of all, user correspondence is for marketing companies that, to get information about people's preferences, create applications that connect to Gmail, such as price comparison tools or automatic travel planners.

As far as Google controls this behavior of developers, it is not clear - the company would at least inform its customers, many of whom hardly suspect that they are giving someone, including live people, not just computer programs, access to their letters. When such access is available, nothing prevents the repetition of the situation as in the case of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica.

Here's how you can find out which applications have access to your Google account (and, therefore, mail in Gmail). To get started, go to https: // myaccount. google. com. In the "Security and Login" section, in the left column, select "Apps that have account access". You can also go directly to this link. The page shows a list of third-party applications with permissions and the data of which Google services they have access to. Programs with access to Gmail can read your mail. It looks like this: By clicking "Cancel access", you disconnect the application from your Google Account. It will no longer be able to read your letters - but its functionality will almost certainly lose its.