Google Argues for Right to Continue Scanning Gmail

[groundloop]

Source: ABC News

Attorneys suing Google say the firm violates privacy and takes personal property by electronically scanning the contents of people's Gmail accounts and then targeting ads to them. "This company reads, on a daily basis, every email that's submitted, and when I say read, I mean looking at every word to determine meaning," said Texas attorney Sean Rommel, who is co-counsel suing Google.........

The plaintiffs say Google "unlawfully opens up, reads, and acquires the content of people's private email messages" in violation of California's privacy laws and federal wiretapping statutes. The lawsuit notes that the company even scans messages sent to any of the 425 million active Gmail users from non-Gmail users who never agreed to the company's terms.........

And Rommel said "the data that's being amassed by this company" could be used for more than just targeting advertising, although the parts of the lawsuit discussing what more Google might be doing with private information is currently under seal.........

Google has repeatedly described how it targets its advertising based on words that show up in Gmail messages. For example, the company says if someone has received a lot of messages about photography or cameras then it might display an advertisement from a local camera store. Google says the process is fully automated, "and no humans read your email..."

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/google-argues-continue-scanning-gmail-20175241

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Bastards. Yet another reason I don't use gmail.

[idwiyo]

1. k&r

[groundloop]

2. Kinda' makes you wonder about the Android operating system

I wouldn't put it past them to be scanning our texts, or even using speech to text converters and logging our conversations. (OK, maybe that's far fetched).

[onehandle]

4. They look at everything on Android. Mobile monetization is all future growth. nt

[Xithras]

7. Android is open source.

Like Linux, Android is an open source project and its code is regularly examined by programmers uninvolved in its development. If Google tried to hide a scanning routine in the code, it would be discovered fairly quickly.

Like them or hate them, Google has been fairly open and upfront about the fact that they scan everything in Gmail and some of their other online systems. If they wanted to insert global scanning into Android, it's improbable that they'd hide it. And if they did insert code like that, you'd see forks and patches released within minutes that would remove that functionality (remember, one of Android's greatest strengths is the fact that, while Google guides Android development, they don't actually control it and can't control what users do with their phones or what others do with their software).

[Martak Sarno]

3. Google Test?

If you would like to see the extent of Google's ad picks, simply send an email to yourself, or have a friend send you one with just a list of random products. Car names, fast food chains, large outlets such as Wally World and even more esoteric things like book titles, telescope brands and especially condoms provide some interesting side ads.

But if you really want to play with their heads, do it again, but misspell all the list and see what you get.

[progressoid]

5. I doubt this is limited to Google.

[grahamhgreen]

6. Yahoo just started doing it as well