Items tagged with Gmail
In a letter sent to US lawmakers, Google reaffirmed its policy of allowing third-party app developers to access private information belonging to Gmail users, so long as the developers are upfront about the data they are collecting. It comes with the territory of allowing third-party apps to integrate with Gmail, as ultimately it is up to the users to make sure they fully understand exactly what permissions they are granting. The policy has drawn increased attention over the past several weeks, especially in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Back at the beginning of July, Google felt...
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Back in April, Google announced a redesign of the Gmail web interface along with some new features meant to provide more secure ways of sending emails. Now that users and security experts have had plenty of time to test out the new features, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is stating that Google is overselling its new Confidential Mode. The EFF says that there's really nothing "confidential" about these features at all and that nearly every aspect of its design is overrated or downright misleading to users. The civil liberties group says that for starters, the email still...
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Are you concerned about who might be reading your emails? You should be, especially if you allow third-party app developers to access your Gmail account, as many of them request. A recent report highlighted the extent of which third-party app developers can access private information, prompting Google to respond with what amounts to a soothing message saying, 'There, there, everything will be okay'. Google is not necessarily wrong, either, provided you are tech savvy enough to understand the risks associated with giving a third-party app certain permissions, and know how to take control of your...
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A new report concerning Gmail has millions of users freaked out about who (or what) is reading their emails. According to a new report posted by the Wall Street Journal this week, Google has granted permission to third-party app developers to read your emails and sometimes a lot more. This might be somewhat confusing to some people, as Google stated last year that it would stop using computer algorithms to scan your email for personalization data. However, Google still grants that same access to third-party app developers. The email scanning comes into play when you give third-party...
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Google is continually making improvements to its Gmail service, and more recently it introduced a couple of new features that many people will find handy. One of those is native offline mail support so that users don't have to rely on third-party software or any special extensions, and the other is Smart Compose, a predicative text feature that Google unveiled at its recent Google I/O event. Predicative text is not a new technology, it's just new to Gmail as a native feature. What it does is suggest words, phrases, and even entire sentences that fit within the context of what you're typing. "Smart...
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Google has rolled out the long-awaited update for Gmail that users will find quite interesting. One of the main goals in the redesign was to allow users to do more without leaving their inbox. This means you can now do open photos and other attachments without having to open the email or scroll through long conversations. A new snooze button also allows you to put off emails you don’t have time for and you can access other Google apps like Calendar, Tasks, and Keep more easily. For those times when you are busy and forgot to reply to something important, Gmail will now "nudge" you with reminders...
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Multiple Gmail users awoke Sunday morning to find that a bunch of spam that appeared to be sent from their accounts. The spam messages from their accounts were found in the sent items folder, but these weren’t emails that the users had sent themselves leaving many to think their accounts had been hacked. One user who found sent spam in his account wrote on the Google help forums, "My email account has sent out 3 spam emails in the past hour to a list of about 10 addresses that I don’t recongnize[sic]. I changed my password immediately after the first one, but then it happened again...
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There's been a lot of buzz surrounding Gmail this week. Earlier in the week, we learned that Google has a redesign of the Gmail web interface arrivingfor G Suite and regular users in the coming weeks. Yesterday, the redesign leaked early giving us an early look at what's in store for users. Today, we're learning that Google is looking to add a new feature to Gmail: self-destructing emails. That's right, Google is taking a page out of the "Mission Impossible" playbook with this feature, which should be helpful when sending sensitive or confidential information over email that...
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It was just yesterday when we reported that Google will soon unveil a redesigned version of its Gmail web/desktop interface. Google is trying to bring the desktop/web version of Gmail closer to feature parity with the mobile app versions of Gmail available for iOS and Android. Today, we're getting our first glimpse at this new user interface courtesy of screenshots that were gathered by The Verge. Regular Gmail users will feel right at home with the redesign, as it doesn’t stray toofar from the current look. However, Google has made some tweaks to bring Gmail's user interface...
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For the millions of Gmail users around the globe, change is coming. In an email first sent to G Suite customers, Google revealed that it is working on a redesign for the web version of its Gmail client. According to the search giant, it will make available an Early Access Program for both G Suite and Gmail users with standard personal accounts. Google is being mum about what design changes it will make to improve the Gmail experience, but it is offering up these nuggets of information with regards to new features that will arrive with the resign. For starters, Google says that the new Gmail will...
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One of the things that sets Android apart from other mobile devices and tablets is access to the Google suite of apps that are commonly called GApps. The GApps suite includes a number of applications including Google Play, Gmail, Camera, Keyboard, and others. Google is now adding tighter restrictions on what devices can access the GApps suite. Normally when an OEM complies with Google's requirements for GApps and pre-loads them on their devices, the devices have been certified for the apps to ensure everything works as Google intended. The problem is that some smaller OEMs were skipping that certification...
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Several years ago, spammers figured out they could fill up a user's Google Calendar with advertisements and other unwanted messages by sending them out as event invites. The issue has largely flown under the radar, but unfortunately for some Google Home owners, the exploit (if you want to call it that) is preventing them from receiving legitimate notifications over their smart speaker, turning what was a nuisance into a major problem. We were alerted about the issue from Micah Stroud, a former NVIDIA employee who sent us an email detailing his frustration with the situation. "For the past three...
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As part of a recent case study, Google teamed up with the University of California, Berkeley, to better understand how hijackers attempt to take over email and social networking accounts. As any thirty-something who grew up watching G.I. Joe cartoons can attest, knowing is half the battle. So, after learning the most common methods for hijacking, Google has some tips on how Gmail users can protect their accounts from outside threats. Hijacking is a common problem, with more 15 percent of Internet users having reported experiencing the takeover of an email or social networking account. From March...
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Here is some good news for Gmail users—living up to its promise earlier this year, Google today expanded the potential capabilities of Gmail by launching native support for third-party add-ons. Now users can tap into services such as Asana, Dialpad, Hire, Intuit QuickBooks Invoicing, and others right from within their inbox, negating the need to toggle between the inbox and other apps. "With Gmail Add-ons, your inbox can contextually surface your go-to app based on messages you receive to help you get things done faster. And because add-ons work the same across web and Android, you only need to...
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