Gmailers Beware: Google Says You Have No "Reasonable Expectation" 
of Privacy
  Dominick Rushe August 14, 2013
  Gmail users have no "reasonable expectation" that their emails 
are confidential, Google has said in a court filing.
  Consumer Watchdog, the advocacy group that uncovered the 
filing, called the revelation a "stunning admission." It comes as 
Google and its peers are under pressure to explain their role in 
the National Security Agency's (NSA) mass surveillance of US 
citizens and foreign nationals.
  "Google has finally admitted they don't respect privacy," said 
John Simpson, Consumer Watchdog's privacy project director.  
"People should take them at their word; if you care about your 
email correspondents' privacy, don't use Gmail."
  Google set out its case last month in an attempt to dismiss a 
class action lawsuit that accuses the tech giant of breaking wire 
tap laws when it scans emails in order to target ads to Gmail 
users.  That suit, filed in May, claims Google "unlawfully opens 
up, reads, and acquires the content of people's private email 
messages." It quotes Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman: 
"Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not 
cross it."
  "Unbeknown to millions of people, on a daily basis and for 
years, Google has systematically and intentionally crossed the 
`creepy line`" to read private email messages containing 
information you don't want anyone to know, and to acquire, 
collect, or mine valuable information from that mail," the suit 
claims.
  In its motion to dismiss the case, Google said the plaintiffs 
were making "an attempt to criminalize ordinary business 
practices" that have been part of Gmail's service since its 
introduction.  Google said "all users of email must necessarily 
expect that their emails will be subject to automated 
processing."
  According to Google: "Just as a sender of a letter to a 
business colleague cannot be surprised that the recipient's 
assistant opens the letter, people who use web-based email today 
cannot be surprised if their communications are processed by the 
recipient's ECS [electronic communications service] provider in 
the course of delivery."
  Citing another privacy case, Google's lawyers said "too little 
is asserted in the complaint about the particular relationship 
between the parties, and the particular circumstances of the 
[communications at issue], to lead to the plausible conclusion 
that an objectively reasonable expectation of confidentiality 
would have attended such a communication."
  Simpson, a long-term Google critic, said: "Google's brief uses 
a wrong-headed analogy; sending an email is like giving a letter 
to the Post Office.  I expect the Post Office to deliver the 
letter based on the address written on the envelope.  I don't 
expect the mail carrier to open my letter and read it.
  "Similarly, when I send an email, I expect it to be delivered 
to the intended recipient with a Gmail account based on the email 
address; why would I expect its content will be intercepted by 
Google and read?"


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