Followup on the conversation about sender images from Gmail

[StR]

Hi Kostya,

Do you remember we discussed images from Gmail (sender) profile. (Sorry, I cannot find the thread where we discussed this question.) Here is a quick followup.
I just came across this option in Gmail settings: (under "General" tab, My picture:
Select a picture that everyone will see when you email them.)

Here is the support page explaining that and the related options:
https://support.google.com/mail/answer/35529?hl=en
Under "Visibility" they write: "Visible to everyone: Anyone who you email, or who emails you, can see your picture."
I am not 100%, if "anyone" means "anyone who uses Gmail", or there is a link to that image accessible for complete "outsiders". IFF it is the former, - I am guessing, any mail client can utilize it.
It might (or might not) use the API that you'd referenced at that point.

I am not pushing for any action (I don't care for those images - this is more of an "academic" interest for me), just sharing the information. Please, forgive me if you've known about it.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Nice to know, but this still doesn't change anything about the APIs:

- Google can use your image in their own apps, if you let them (this option is selected)

- Companies like Yahoo or TypeMail may have worked something out with Google to get access to this (to look up a person's image based on his/her email). Or they do their own collecting, pulling this info from Contacts / Profile of every user of their app, and sharing.

- The API to get a Google user's profile image requires authorization (you have to log in as "the" user) or you have to know the user's "Google ID" (some arbitrary looking number).