A recent article published on Oct 1, 2013 accuses Google, one of the world’s biggest Web companies, to be illegally wiretapping in Gmail scans. The Gmail case is said to possibly have broad effects as nearly half a billion people worldwide use the service, and if it is certified as a class action, the fines could be enormous. It involves Google’s use of automatically going over e-mail messages and showing ads based on content of the e-mails which violates state and federal antiwiretapping laws. An issue arises as people now begin to wonder, “Just how confidential is online data?” Can we really trust the online sources we’re inputing our private information on? This unethical move hinders the trust of all the users for that certain Web company and may likely even cause a great blow on its revenue and reputation because of its issue of wiretapping. Many users of Gmail and other Web companies like Yahoo are no longer willing to resort to online emailing when it comes to conveying valuable information to one another. We shouldn’t need to worry about potential risks of our confidential data being seen by a third party. Online emailing should be a safe place for people to communicate.
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