Lawsuit alleging Gmail ads are "wiretapping" gets judge's OK
It's widely understood that the ads Google puts in Gmail are based on the content of e-mails. The millions of Gmail users presumably accept the company's promise that "no humans read your e-mail."
Despite that, a lawsuit claiming that Google's practice violates pre-Internet anti-wiretapping laws will be going forward. Lawyers representing non-Gmail users of various stripes in a class-action lawsuit say their clients never agreed to have their e-mails intercepted and scanned by Google. They argue that Google's "interception" of those e-mails violates federal anti-wiretapping laws and state privacy laws. And today, US District Judge Lucy Koh agreed with them, refusing to grant Google's motion to dismiss the case.
Even an e-mail sender who read the company's privacy policies "would not have necessarily understood that her e-mails were being intercepted to create user profiles or to provide targeted advertisements," stated the judge. The plaintiffs in this case haven't consented implicitly or explicitly to have their e-mails scanned, and so the lawsuit can move forward, she ruled.
