Good news for those concerned about privacy issues. Google will later this year stop scanning Gmail emails for the personalisation of advertisements, according to a recent blog post.

According to Diane Greene, senior vice president of Google Cloud, it brings Gmail ads in line with how the company personalise advertising for other Google products. “Ads shown are based on users’ settings. Users can change those settings at any time, including disabling ads personalisation,” she notes.

The consumer Gmail offering now joins Google’s business minded G Suite Gmail in not using content for user-specific advertising. According to a Bloomberg interview with Greene, she notes that certain G Suite users believed that the scanning practise also occurred with their emails, although no ads are displayed in that Gmail offering. This move is then to also garner trust regarding privacy so that Google can persuade more business clients to buy the G Suite package.

However, ads will continue to display in Gmail’s free offering. These will be personalised on the information that Google already has on users, based on, for example, their search history and YouTube video selections. The exact day when Google will stop scanning Gmail has not been made known yet.