The IT Nerd

Google at the moment is being sued because their habit of scanning e-mails to present you with ads is a violation of your privacy. However, Google in the process of defending itself filed a motion in June that makes a stunning admission according to CNet:

In a 39-page motion filed in June (see below) to have a class-action data-mining lawsuit dismissed, the Web giant cites Smith v. Maryland, a 1979 Supreme Court decision that upheld the collection of electronic communications without a warrant.

“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 emails are processed by the recipient’s [e-mail provider] in the course of delivery. Indeed, ‘a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over to third parties.'”

Well, at least they admit it. But it really highlights how there is no privacy on the Internet. It also highlights what I tell my customers. If you want some degree of privacy for your e-mail, you need to run your own e-mail server rather than using an online service like Gmail. Now that’s not practical for the average person. But for businesses who are thinking of outsourcing their e-mail to Google or someone else, it’s something to consider. And for the record, I run my own e-mail server for both my business and personal purposes. I have a Gmail and Outlook.com account for the purposes of testing phones and tablets. But other than that, I refuse to use an online service like Gmail.

It also highlights the fact that the company who claims to “do no evil” does plenty of things that can be considered “evil” and they’re okay with that.

This entry was posted on August 14, 2013 at 7:32 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Google, Privacy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.