Google sent out a notification that it will automatically opt you into using content from your email campaigns to help Google know what to show in Google Search, Shopping, and Maps. It will look for content around “new arrivals, sales or ongoing promotions, social media profiles, and others,” Google said.
Just to clarify, “you” in this case refers to companies and marketers, not consumers. Looks like this news website is for marketers/SEO industry people.
So this is another headline designed to get a kneejerk reaction outta people.
Basically if I’m a store that sends out a weekly email to subscribers, Google will “read” that email for SEO purposes.