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Now, any close follower of Google’s transparency reports and general modus operandi when it comes to compliance with government demands for user data will not be surprised by this revelation. Furthermore, it is no secret that Google traces user search activity in order to provide targeted advertising. However, millions of Internet users — unattuned to the vagaries of Google’s approach to transparency and privacy — would have assumed their emails were treated as private. Hopefully the current lawsuit will help inform more Internet denizens that if they’re seeking confidentiality and protection from government and corporate surveillance, Google is no place to turn.
UPDATE: Salon received a comment from Google clarifying the issue of privacy that arose in the class action lawsuit. Google points out that it is not Gmail users who can expect no privacy protections, but rather Google’s attorneys argument about email interception by a third party applies to non-Gmail users, who have not signed Google’s terms of service. Google stated:
“We take our users’ privacy and security very seriously; recent reports claiming otherwise are simply untrue. We have built industry-leading security and privacy features into Gmail — and no matter who sends an email to a Gmail user, those protections apply.”
The Verge specified the particular issue at hand in terms of Google and the application of privacy protections:
[The Google attorney was quoting] from the 1979 Supreme Court case Smith v. Maryland, in which the court upheld what’s called the “third-party doctrine,” saying that once you involve a third party in communication, you lose legally enforceable privacy rights. (This is an extremely controversial notion, but for right now, it’s the law.) Google’s argument is that people who email Gmail users are necessarily involving Gmail’s servers in the mix, kicking the third-party doctrine into effect. This is pretty basic stuff.
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