Even with Google’s extreme successes in business, evidence has come up that some of this success may be attributed to ethical violations.  According to nine plaintiffs google has been crossing a “creepy line” when it comes to the scanning of customer’s e-mails.  This puts them in violation of federal wire-tapping laws.  Google has put up a legal fight and claimed that the users agreed to these violations when they consented to Google’s terms of service.  These terms apparently state that users consented to having their e-mails read for the purpose of targeted advertising.  The judge did not agree with that statement and decided to let the lawsuit continue.

After reading the privacy policies myself it made me uncomfortable to continue using my gmail account.  It does not specifically state that google will scan your e-mails for targeted advertising.  The one quote from the terms of service that seemed to have any relation was under the heading “information we collect” in which Google says, “When you use our services or view content provided by Google, we may automatically collect and store certain information… This may include:… details of how you used our service, such as your search queries.”  With no other policies that even refer to any interception of information with regards to email I agree with US District Judge Lucy Koh that, “Nothing in the policies suggests that Google intercepts email communication in transit between users, and in fact, the policies obscure Google’s intent to engage in such interceptions,”

On a more happy note, Happy 15th Birthday Google!

Links used:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/09/us-judge-allows-lawsuit-against-google-2013926213729988976.html

http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/terms/

http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/