(the link is not paid for, nor does it go to, McAfee, it's malware)
Can't wait to fully migrate to Proton.
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this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023
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Why are there ads in Gmail what is this? I have never seen ads in my Gmail app
They only show if you have categories enabled, and then only on the Promotions category.
Just realized you're right. They show in all the tabs other than Inbox. Weak.
It made me so mad when they appeared in updates. I don’t use categories anymore and went full inbox zero.
Honestly it still would have been malware if it was actually McAfee.
There are ads in your gmail?
Yes, even though I pay for Google One (sucker, I know).
My Google Workspace email doesn't have ads.
That's weird, on android Gmail I don't get any, even when searching.
Yeah same. I have free personal Gmail and everything.
Go to promotions, they're all in there.
I have some stuff that falls into promotions, so I check it occasionally.
I don't have promotions, I just have removed that one
Gmail serves you ads? Holy shit...
how does that even make it through google's qa?
thunderbird and k9 + a monthly donation to thunderbird rule :)
The content of the ads doesn't matter as long as they're paying for ads ;)
If you use Gmail badly this it what happens.
I feel like this is more on the user than on the app. Haven't ever seen anything like this.
It's the default Gmail layout, the one your average Joe who might seriously click on this would use.
If you remove your Promotions tab, it doesn't serve you ads.
Exactly my point though.
If you're using the default settings for anything you're not going to have as good a time as spending a few minutes removing the crap.
It's the same whether it's Windows, Linux, Apple or whatever - the default is generally crap/annoying and you need to configure it.
Yeah no, applications need to be secure by default. Blaming the user does nothing to actually improve the security posture anywhere. The security posture of the app needs to be specifically designed with the least-skilled users in mind because they are also the most vulnerable to this type of problem. Google meanwhile is full of talented engineers who are experts at identifying and combatting this type of malware scam.
To look at it another way, what google is actually doing here is intentionally exposing their users to malware in order to take a cut in the form of advertising revenue.
Remove the "Promotions" tab. Ads are GONE!
As much as I hate Google and corporations altogether, maybe read the friggin' manual from time to time?
The problem here is they're serving literal malware in their client, and the categorized view is the default, which the average person will use.
I've switched to K9 mail for that account, doesn't matter what the Gmail client does anymore.
The problem is...you allowed it. Could have just read and avoided the problem altogether. Again, I'm not thrilled with it, which is exactly why I chose to turn it off. Malware doesn't typically allow you to opt-out.
And let me know when K9 supports Exchange. Unfortunately, some of us still need to use protocols outside of IMAP and POP.
Stop user shaming. You’re attacking an end user instead of attacking the dark pattern. The proper callout is “damn that sucks Gmail shouldn’t be serving ads that look like email btw did you know you can stop using categories to stop getting ads?” When you do things like “you should have known better” you’re completing ignoring the whole “Gmail shouldn’t be serving ads as emails” part.
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Look at the bigger picture, the default is what everyone including the elderly, kids, anyone not tech savvy, or anyone that doesn't want to search for the "don't serve me malware" setting for their friggin email.
The company is still liable if they officially promote dangerous stuff, even if the user could technically avoid it. Take the Panera Charged Lemonade scandal for example. The user shouldn't be forced to tiptoe around the email client itself.
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Ok thank you for this. I didn't even know you could add and remove categories
AFAIK ads can be served in any category now. They were limited to promotions for a very long time. I turned off all categories a year or two ago when ads starting showing up in Updates.
What’s proton?
Good question!
It's a privacy and security-focused productivity suite, mostly known for their Proton Mail product.
They don't sell your data, they're mostly open-sourced and get audited frequently.
Hmm interesting, I’ve been wanting to move away from outlook, I may need to look into this.
Hello there, fellow Montrealer!
Yeah I changed my Gmail view recently and I get ads now too.
Allo j'tai reconnu :D
Like I said elsewhere in the thread, I just switched to K9 mail, which is eventually going to become Thunderbird. Hopefully it's good 🤞
This is why I switched to K-9 Mail instead of using GMail because borderline Google was legitimately serving malware not just McAfee which isn't malware. Since it allows me to have my Gmail and other email accounts in it all at the same time instead of a dedicated app filled with ads leading to real malware.
Oh this doesn't link to McAfee, this links to a scam site that may or may not send you to McAfee's website after clicking their big "buy now" button.
Buy a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and install McAfee on it. What could possibly go wrong?
why would you open it lmao
I didn't at first, I went through the kebab menu to report it, and it tells me which domain it points to.
I did click it eventually out of curiosity because I'm on Firefox with an ad blocker and privacy tools.
The link within actually goes to McAfee, but I'm guessing it's some sort of smart switcher where it sometimes sends you to a fake checkout page?
I did click it eventually out of curiosity because I'm on Firefox with an ad blocker and privacy tools.
with javascripts being disabled, right? right?
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That's not McAfee, check the URL at the bottom.
I'm aware, the "renew subscription" button goes to McAfee, this is a scam page
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