Turns out Gmail Man is real, and he has been collecting all your purchase receipts

Google’s personal data collection frequently verges on the creepy, and today it has been revealed that the company has been collecting a record of all the emailed receipts you have in your Gmail inbox and collating a list of your purchases which you can view on their website.

The page at myaccount.google.com/u/0/purchases contains a list of all the apps your purchased (even on iOS), credit card transactions (if you have been emailed a receipt), offer reward program and more.

In a statement to the Verge Google notes:

“To help you easily view and keep track of your purchases, bookings and subscriptions in one place, we’ve created a private destination that can only be seen by you. You can delete this information at any time. We don’t use any information from your Gmail messages to serve you ads, and that includes the email receipts and confirmations shown on the Purchase page.”

While the page is private to you, it does give some insight into how much Google knows about you, and of course, also gives a one-stop location for others (such as partners) to check up on your online life.

The news brings to mind Microsoft’s Gmail Man ad campaign, which made much of the fact that Google was constantly scanning your email to learn more about you. That campaign generally fell flat, but in these days of increased privacy awareness, it may be time to revisit the concept.

Via The Verge