People sending email to any of Google’s 425 million Gmail users apparently have “no reasonable expectation” that their correspondence is confidential, according to the firm itself.
The “stunning admission” was made in a filing it lodged with a court in America that forms part of a case in which it is attempting to dismiss a class action lawsuit against it for breaking wire-tapping laws.
The case against Google claims that the tech giant scans emails sent from people and firms who do not have Google accounts in order to target ads to Gmail users.
Quoting Google’s Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, who said that it is Google policy to “get right up to the creepy line”, the suit claims that the firm crosses it, although while Mr Schmidt says that it does not.
In fact, the suit says that “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 … and to acquire, collect, or mine valuable information from that mail.”
In its motion to dismiss the case, Google said that the plaintiffs were making “an attempt to criminalise ordinary business practices” that have been part of Gmail’s service since its introduction and added that all users of email must necessarily expect that their emails will be subject to automated processing.
Since the ‘creepy line’ aspect has been made public, Google has responded by saying that it takes users’ privacy very seriously, however, it makes the strange comparison between sending an email and sending a business letter, which, it says, the sender can expect to be read by someone other than the recipient, meaning an associate or assistant.
However, as critics have pointed out, while this may be true, the postman does not read the letter, which is, after all, what Google is in the equation.