Skip to main content

Here’s why you should never trust those ‘privacy-focused’ email apps

 

A handful of third-party email clients have been found to be scraping their users’ inboxes for profit. A new report by Motherboard reveals that apps such as Edison Email, a popular and free cross-platform email service with millions of downloads, have been selling anonymized data and analytics they acquired from users’ accounts to corporate giants in the finance, travel, and e-commerce sectors.

Recommended Videos

By scanning people’s inboxes, these email platforms have been essentially able to stitch consumer metrics such as brand loyalty and purchase habits. Companies then process this information likely for their marketing campaigns, as well as future product development. The documents obtained by Motherboard also include two more major email apps: CleanFox and Japan-based conglomerate, Rakuten’s Slice.

Email companies primarily gain access and rights to actively scan users’ inboxes through “personalized” features. These tools go through all the emails a person receives and format them in a more readable layout. For instance, Edison has a package-tracking section where it sorts all the updates from courier companies like Amazon and FedEx.

While most of the companies promote “privacy-first” principles on their websites, fine prints of their policies clearly mention these practices and say their users have an option to opt out of personalized features. “You can opt out of having your Commercial Data used in Trends at any time and continue to use the Edison Services with no degradation to your experience,” Edison states in its Privacy Policy.

“To keep our Edison Mail app free, and to protect your privacy by rejecting an advertising-based business model, our company Edison Software measures e-commerce through a technology that automatically recognizes commercial emails and extracts anonymous purchase information from them. Our technology is designed to ignore personal and work email, which does not help us measure market trends,” wrote Edison in a blog post moments after Motherboard’s investigation was published.

Regardless, you should steer clear of third-party email apps such as Edison and CleanFox. These services pretty much take over your inbox in the registration process and at all times, their employees have the right to read and modify your emails. In 2018, a Wall Street Journal report revealed that third-party email companies including Edison had employees read the emails of hundreds of users to craft personalized features.

If you do wish to quit a third-party email app you have been using, the most efficient way is to head over to your email provider’s settings page and revoke the service’s access. On Gmail, you can find these options under Security > Manage Third-Party Access.

Shubham Agarwal
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Shubham Agarwal is a freelance technology journalist from Ahmedabad, India. His work has previously appeared in Firstpost…
Here’s why Apple’s C1 modem is good news for future MacBook battery life
The screen of the MacBook Air M2.

Back in 2008, Steve Jobs said that Apple had thought about adding a 3G modem to its laptops to give them wireless capabilities without needing a Wi-Fi connection. Yet the company eventually gave up on the idea because the chips would take up too much space inside Apple’s famously tightly packed laptops. For years, the idea seemed dead in the water.

Now, it could finally come to fruition 20 years after Jobs’ candid claim. It’s a remarkable turn of events and could bring numerous benefits to MacBook users.

Read more
A new report slams MacBooks’ repairability. Here’s what you can do if you need to fix yours
A person repairing a MacBook on a blue table.

Apple’s best MacBooks have earned a reputation for generous software support and top-tier build quality, two factors that mean they often last far longer than their rivals. But the flipside of the coin is the fact that MacBooks are incredibly difficult to repair, requiring specialized tools, complex disassembly and the enduring patience of a saint.

That idea has been reinforced by a recent report (PDF download) from the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Education Fund, which found that Apple’s MacBooks are the second-worst laptops in terms of repairability, with only Lenovo scoring lower. Worst of all, most of Apple’s poor score came from an extremely low disassembly rating, which will be ominous reading for anyone about to undertake the challenge of tearing down their pricey laptop.

Read more
I won’t be buying an iPhone 16e for anyone in my family, here’s why
Hand holding iPhone 16e.

Apple’s iPhone 16e is a strange duck. When one sits down and considers the specs, it’s hard to figure out where it truly fits into Apple’s lineup.

It’s apparent from the name that Apple wants you to see it as the new junior member of the iPhone 16 lineup. That’s certainly fair, and it’s arguably about time that the iPhone family got a third tier. After all, Apple’s chief rivals like Google and Samsung have had their A-series and FE-series phones for years.

Read more