• ZDNet, Friday, July 29, 2011 12:05 PM

Does Google read Gmail users' mail? Microsoft certainly thinks so, as is well illustrated by a video spoof reportedly produced for internal consumption only. In the video, "Gmail Man" gleefully goes through consumer mail to find keywords for serving them more relevant ads. "The message: Google cares more about advertising revenues than privacy," reports ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley.

The purpose of the video, meanwhile, is "to spur the troops selling Office 365 against Google Apps, and specifically, Gmail," Foley adds. The video debuted during Microsoft's annual Global Exchange sales conference last week. "The thing to remember about Microsoft MGX videos are they're just a means of revving up the sales troops," Foley writes.

Meanwhile, as Foley adds, Google has acknowledged that Gmail scans content and context of email as part of its ad system. And, thus far, there's no clear indication that privacy concerns have affected Gmail's popularly.

Read the whole story at ZDNet »