this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2025
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No Stupid Questions

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I realise that Google places ads in the native Gmail environment. However, when using a third party front end to embed the Google services, how does the company make money off that? When I use Thunderbird to access Gmail or the Google Calendar or when I map my Google Drive to the file explorer, how can Google profit from this kind of use?

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 days ago (2 children)

They're scanning the email contents.

and your google drive contents.

and everything else you send through their services.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Google does not use the content of Gmail messages for ad targeting. Lots of misinformation here.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

it's interesting that you added a qualifier that I did not, to justify calling my statement "misinformation"

they are scanning your data. and while they may not be exploiting it for ad-targeting... they are almost certainly exploiting it. That's their business model: Scrape every ounce of data they can and exploit it every which way they can.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

“Exploiting” means what, exactly? And what evidence do you have for it?

The content of your email is not used for targeting or profiling, it’s not being sold. Clear enough? The qualifier is because some “well ackshually” will point out that they have to scan it for spam filtering, virus detecting, adding calendar events, etc. These are features of the product, and I think labeling them exploitation would be a bit rich.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Exploiting means exactly what it means.

Once they have the scan, that’s their data. Of course they’re going to be using it for other things. The excuses they give, are of course, the foot in the door.

It’s a “bit rich” that you think you’re not the product.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)

That's why I am no longer using their services like Gmail and Google Maps. I jumped tot alternatives, much recommended.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (3 children)

What are you using in lieu of Google Maps?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I use GoogleStreetMap for GPS, I've replaced Gmail with StartMail and instead of Google Calendar I use TimeTree for now. Might need to find a real privacy related calendar, anyone suggestions?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I was so confused by your first one until I clicked the link and realized you meant "OpenStreetView" instead of "GoogleStreetView" 🤣

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Magic Earth is amazing

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I have been using Organic Maps for many years. They are offline-first, and use OpenStreetMap for the data. Since it's OpenStreetMap, quality might vary by country and even city.

If you're looking for more commercial app, HERE WeGo / Here Maps has traffic and online accounts.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

How’s the realtime traffic on those? I’m currently using magic earth and the routing is mostly okay compared to GMaps, but the traffic data is frequently stale.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

TBH I haven't used traffic feature (or WeGo, really) enough to know if it's good.