(the link is not paid for, nor does it go to, McAfee, it’s malware)
Can’t wait to fully migrate to Proton.
Security Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Is gud 👍
goodest
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.
And this is why I leave automatic updates off and stopped updating Gmail as soon as I heard they were inserting ads. I know something will probably break to force me to update eventually, but not today!
…updating Gmail?
Is that a thing? It’s a website…doesn’t it update whenever they update it?
It’s an Android app, too. The screenshot you’re seeing is from the app. For the website, I wouldn’t have to worry thanks to uBlock Origin.
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.
Removed by mod
I think you very ably demonstrated my point. Thanks!
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.
I mean…the company is an ad company. Didn’t think I had to explain to users how they make their money, but apparently everyone needs a “coffee is hot” warning on everything.
This isn’t “coffee is hot” though. For naive internet users, this is more equivalent to “coffee will give you small pox”. You really don’t need to defend Google here.
I just think it’s one of the least surprising things I’ve seen Google do in, just about…ever. AND there’s a simple option to remove it. Could probably GOOGLE it, but don’t want to be too much of a boot licker. It just seems like such a nothingburger of an issue while the real late-stage capitalism shit is happening all around us. That’s all. Don’t mean to offend y’all.
It’s great that it’s obvious to you. It is. Glad you’re protected on the internet. Unfortunately, if you’re arguing with people who are savvy enough to be on the fediverss yet find it confusing, then there are many less savvy people, let’s say older folks, whom Google will be serving malware links. Is this not a problem? It’s their fault for not being, what, born later?
No worries, I get it, it’s so much easier to blame the individual rather than accept that everything will get worse and worse due to powerful people and corporations.
Ultimately we should remember not to lower our standards, because if we’re being honest, companies don’t care about making ends meet, they care about growth. So a sustainable business that’s done growing just isn’t enough for them.
After all, if we excuse these ads in categories, Google might treat that as the go ahead to place ads in general inbox too, or remove the option to get rid if ads. If you give them an inch they will take a mile. But I sincerely get your frustration.
Ads are one thing, malware through ads is another. Don’t be pedantic, you know what he’s trying to say.
This isn’t about having ads (though that still sucks) this is about again, company endorsed malware.
If they’re gonna shove ads in email, they need to have the quality control to not have misleading and harmful ads placed in there. Again, think of this as the charged lemonade situation, just because the user can technically avoid the risk, doesn’t mean they’re exempt from reducing the danger they put their users in.
I mean…the company is an ad company
You’d think an ad company would have proper vetting processes so as to not serve literal malware to their users.
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 🤞
Buy a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and install McAfee on it. What could possibly go wrong?
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.
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?
Yup, noscript 😋
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
Oh man been off the personal plan on gmail for a while (only have gmail for work because my office is on gsuite) and my pal showed this to me recently and I fucking rolled 🤣 I had tutanota an proton for a while but no SMTP support forced me into zoho which is still a millions time better than gmail
The fact that it goes to a malware website makes it 100 times better
