I am not too freaked about this. Maybe the TOS has changed. Maybe this is a different way of approaching things, but this sort of thing has been going on for years.
My email-cahin buddies and I once conducted an experiment. We started an email thread about fruit. We wrote each other silly emails about how much we liked pineapples and how oranges are better than bananas. Rather quickly our sidebar ads filled with advertisements from Dole.
So Google has said…
“Our automated systems analyze your content (including emails) to provide you personally relevant product features, such as customized search results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection. This analysis occurs as the content is sent, received, and when it is stored.”
GOOGLE TERMS OF SERVICE (TOS)
via Google’s new terms of service: all Gmail scanned for ad targeting | Circa News.
So yes you can freak out about privacy. You might as well throw your cellphone away, stop using cars (license plate readers), your ATM card (I see you were on Broadway and 44th yesterday at 2:13pm), your EZ Pass and the internet (that’s a nice IP address you have there). If I’m going to be bombarded with ads I’d rather them be relevant ads anyway.