After previously criticizing Google for its Gmail service's feature that can purportedly scan users' e-mail in order to place targeted advertising based on the content, a California state lawmaker has introduced a bill to forbid the Mountain View-based search giant from including and operating the feature.
"Telling people that their most intimate and private e-mail thoughts to doctors, friends, lovers, and family members are just another direct marketing commodity isn?t the way to promote e-commerce," said state Sen. Liz Figueroa (D-Fremont), whose district includes much of Silicon Valley, when she introduced the bill April 21. "At minimum, before someone?s most intimate and private thoughts are converted into a direct marketing opportunity for Google, Google should get everyone?s informed consent."
Figueroa's bill, if it goes all the way to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature, would prohibit reviewing e-mail content unless Google or any other e-mail service provider gets the consent of all parties to any e-mail exchange.
How simple or difficult would it be to obtain that consent, before Gmail's scan feature could be operated regarding a particular user's e-mail? Figueroa spokesman David Link told AVNOnline.com there could be "a couple of solutions" already in existence that might apply.
"First would be a 'bounce' technology, used today for spam," Link said. "If a nonsubscriber were to send a Gmail subscriber e-mail, Gmail could send out an automated notice that the recipient is a GMail subscriber, and briefly explain how the system works. If the sender then wants the e-mail to go through, they could click an icon saying they consent to what GMail does, and that e-mail would go through, along with any subsequent e-mails from that account."
The second, Link said, would involve senders using programs like robots.txt, already used as a kind of "no trespassing" sign for search engines and possibly adaptable for Gmail use.
"We have no concern at all about the breadth of the creativity of the folks at Google to come up with some other potential solution," he said. "We just want to make sure this question is being addressed."
Earlier this month, Figueroa sent a letter to Google strongly urging that the company consider abandoning "this misbegotten idea. I believe you are embarking on a disaster of enormous proportions." Google subsequently told AVNOnline.com that they were completely compliant with data protection laws, and that more software than computer users are aware of use similar scanning features.
"If you use spam detection or spell checking," said a Google spokesperson who asked not to be identified at that time, "or if you use virus protection technology, all of them scan content of e-mail. It's important to know that the very e-mail that sent the complaint, that content [probably] got scanned before it left."
But at least 31 privacy groups, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, joined the World Privacy Forum in protesting the e-mail text scan plan. "Google has not created written policies to date that adequately protect consumers from the unintended consequences of building this structure," said a WPF letter earlier this month. "It is, in fact, arguable that no policy could adequately protect consumers from future abuses. The societal consequences of initiating a global infrastructure to continually monitor the communications of individuals are significant and far-reaching with immediate and long-term privacy implications."
