Gmail 3rd-party add-ons caution

UTS Support Posted on November 18, 2018 Posted in Alerts, E-mail

Recently a few people have been asking us about using 3rd-party add-ons to gmail such as ‘Boomerang’ and ‘Email Studio for Gmail’. These add-ons will add power tools and features to gmail such as scheduled mail, reminders, smarter auto-responder options and so on.

Unfortunately, they also come with a price. In some cases, the price is cash. In many cases, the price is also serious security and privacy concerns. In the case of both of the products mentioned above;

This basically gives an external company, who is not google, full access to your email. What does this mean?

they can download and store your email on their servers.
employees of that company can read, delete or modify your email.
if the company is hacked or compromised, your email can be hacked or compromised
your data can be used in ways that aren’t obvious, or shared with others. (Check their privacy policy). Ie, they may sell your contact list to marketers.

We ask that you do not use these products with your Nipissing University email. If you need features you are not finding in gmail, please speak with someone in UTS. We may be able to offer suggestions for alternatives that will not come with such serious security risks.

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