New developments with Google and its Gmail. Consumer watchdog organization Consumer Watchdog accuses Google of violating the privacy of Gmail users. The lawsuit filed in US Federal Court states that the company “reads” personal messages and uses the information to display targeted ads. The lawsuit demands that Google fully disclose what information it receives from its users’ e-mails, and pay compensation for these violations.
The company claimed that “all its email users should definitely expect that their emails will be subject to automated processing.”
Google argues that its users, in principle, if they entrust their personal messages to a third party, they cannot expect that that third party will not check their files. As a second reason, Google argued that email service providers are allowed to process the data they receive to be able to distinguish which messages are spam and which are not.
This isn't the first time Google has been accused of privacy violations. In 2011, the company was accused by the Federal Trade Commission of using "deceptive" privacy practices when it launched Google Buzz in 2010.
Let's not forget, of course, that Google was named by the Guardian newspaper in June as one of the companies that gives the NSA "direct access to its systems.".
