In reality, these auto-delete tools accomplish little for users, even as they generate positive PR for Google. Experts say that by the time three months rolls around, Google has already extracted nearly all the potential value from users’ data, and from an advertising standpoint, data becomes practically worthless when it’s more than a few months old.
“Anything up to one month is extremely valuable,” says David Dweck, the head of paid search at digital ad firm WPromote. “Anything beyond one month, we probably weren’t going to target you anyway.”
Colour me entirely the exact opposite of surprised.
Yeah I was wondering “why three months?” I guess we now know why…
This reminds of the way that many large hosting providers treat spamming – as well as any TOS/AUP violations that involve abuse of third-parties’ systems, and their (the host’s) own. And I’m not talking the notoriously scummy hosts like OVH & Leaseweb, who are essentially bulletproof hosts in all but official policy – but rather the Bluehosts, GoDaddies, DigitalOceans, Amazons, etc, of the world (not to mention both Google and Microsoft, to the extent that they are also kinda-sorta hosting providers with GMail & Hotmail).
Yes, most of them do have terms in the AUP/TOS agreements that prohibit spamming, and most of them will get around to booting offenders… eventually, that is, and often weeks or months after being notified of the issue – AKA after the damage has long since been done, and the spammers have moved onto another host. With most spam runs, the first couple of days are the most critical time, since the spammers know they have a limited amount of time before various blacklisting services & spam filters catch onto them – so if it takes more than 24-48 address it, that’s about as effective as simply doing nothing.
So the providers basically get to have their cake & eat it to: they get to pretend that they’re responsible hosts who manage their networks effectively & stay off Spamhaus, etc – while also not sacrificing the revenues they earn from hosting spammers, by dragging their heels when it comes to actually enforcing their own policies (so long as the payment clears, of course).