Some examples of apps that request access to your inbox include Earny, Unroll.Me and Boomerang. What those apps are able to see depends on the purpose of the app.
"If you get an extension that lets you organize your emails, they're gonna see your emails. If you get an extension that lets you unroll from newsletters, they're gonna have to see the headers and information on your emails. What's interesting is that people opt into this and they don't quite understand and the reason they don't quite understand is because the privacy settings were kind of made in the 2000 to 2017 world. Google should have changed those," Thompson said.
Because many of these apps increase the functionality of your Gmail, Thompson doesn't think Google should do away with them. Instead, they need to make it explicitly clear what users are agreeing to and set strict parameters for how developers use the data they see.
"It should say 'Hey, this thing is going to read your e-mail. You sure you want that? You just clicked you wanted that. You're really sure? You're totally sure?" Thompson said. "What you don't want is you don't want an app that you use to organize your inbox more efficiently which then sells your data to marketers or then sells it to hedge funds for investment decisions. So, Google probably needs to clear up both of those things."