Earthquake for chat and Gmail. What happens to Wapp, Instagram and Facebook?
All the news that await us on Gmail and beyond
With the end of the year and the beginning of the new one, the users of some of the most popular apps, including the mail service offered by Google, or Gmail, but also Chat and Meet, and then WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram as far as concerns the Facebook group, they will have to sign new contracts with their respective companies on the terms of use of the various software. Contracts that, as we well know, are not negotiable but are resolved, for the user, in the acceptance of the impositions dropped from above by the Big American ones. In fact, several things will change. But let's go in order.
THE NEWS IN THE GMAIL HOME
There are two news from Google. The first concerns our consent to the use of so-called "smart features". The email that all Google users are receiving these days reads: "To give you more control over your information and support compliance requirements, we are going to introduce two new settings for Gmail, Chat and Meet". In practice, Google asks us to let you peek into our routine when we use its software ("… allows you to choose whether your Gmail, Chat and Meet data can be used to provide intelligent features within these services …") to allow your artificial intelligence to support us with "intelligent features".
WHAT ARE INTELLIGENT FEATURES
The intelligent features are: “Automatic filtering / automatic categorization (Main / Social / Promotions) of emails; Smart writing and quick reply in emails; Summary cards above the emails (tracking of shipments, travel and more; Extraction of event details to create calendar entries. But that's not all, because always among the new services offered: Assistant reminder for expiring invoices; Maps which shows restaurant reservations; Google Travel which groups your itineraries; Google Pay which shows your loyalty cards ".
WHAT ABOUT PRIVACY?
In case you choose to activate them, privacy ( old Achilles heel for Google ) obviously recedes, because Google's AI, more and more like a private secretary, will put another foot in your home. And not only that: it will also snoop in your diary to remind you of appointments and in your emails to learn quick answers and smart writing. Which is a great convenience, but also quite disturbing. After all, such software, if purchased, would cost you thousands of euros, while the new services are totally free, so once you have given Google permission to enter your home you will have to ask yourself what it will do with your data, because it is plausible. that it exploits them for commercial purposes, since it is certainly not a non-profit.
GMAIL AND PAID DRIVE?
The other news on the Gmail front concerns the content saved in the cloud. Reads another missive from Google: "If your usage remains above the available quota for two years or more and you have not freed up or purchased additional storage space to fall within the limits, all your content may be removed from Gmail, Drive and Photo. Before this happens: We will notify you via email and via notifications within Google products. We will contact you at least three months before the content becomes subject to deletion. We will give you the option to avoid deletion (by purchasing additional storage space or removing files). We will give you the opportunity to download your content from our services. Find out more about how to download your data from Google ”. In short, if the company on the one hand makes available free software on artificial intelligence for thousands and thousands of euros, on the other it begins to transform the services that interest it less from free to payment, encouraging the migration to expensive ones.
THE FACEBOOK GROUP AT THE SOCKETS WITH NEW PRIVACY RULES
And then there is the Facebook group which now holds the most popular messaging programs: WhatsApp, Instagram (yes, many, especially among the youngest, use it to chat) and Messenger. You may have noticed that lately a banner stands out on the last two: “Some functions are not available. The reason is that we have to comply with the new rules relating to messaging services in Europe. We are working to make them available again ”. At the moment the company has decided not to disclose anything more. Among the features that are missing the possibility of sending messages to contacts with whom there was a greater dialogue, skimmed by the software algorithm without the user indexing them among the favorites. The Verge , not surprisingly, hypothesizes that these functions have been deactivated, pending the legal branch of the company to make users sign new conditions of use, in order not to conflict with the ePrivacy Directive, which imposes more rules. stringent regarding the use of data between communication services operating in the member countries of the European Union.
And then there is WhatsApp. As anticipated by WABetaInfo , starting from February 8, 2021, to continue using the messaging software it will be necessary to accept new terms on the conditions on how WhatsApp manages user data and, on the business front, how companies will be able to use Facebook services. to manage relationships with their customers when they integrate their services for ecommerce.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/terremoto-per-chat-e-gmail-cosa-succede-a-wapp-instagram-e-facebook/ on Fri, 25 Dec 2020 07:12:55 +0000.