A state ban on the use of content and text scanning of e-mail for "real time" direct marketing ads has passed the state Senate. The bill, written by Google critic Sen. Liz Figueroa (D-Fremont), will "generally forbid the technology" from any real-time use except in ways that leave no trace or record.
If the Figueroa bill survives the Assembly and is signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, it would ban e-mail providers from keeping personally identifiable information derived from the use of such technology as that used by Google’s Gmail. It would also ban human access to such information, transferring such information to third parties, and require that consumer-deleted e-mail be deleted completely by the e-mail service so it cannot be retrieved.
Figueroa's is believed to be the first such legislation written and passed in a major state legislative body.
“This new technology has the horrible potential to use our e-mails to create profiles on us based on our most personal and intimate thoughts," the senator said on the floor May 27, before the bill was passed.
"We know that once the information genie is out of the bottle, it is impossible to put it back," Figueroa continued. "My legislation guarantees that our most private communications will remain just that – private.”
Thirty privacy groups have petitioned Google against using the controversial Gmail technology, with complaints believed to be pending in 17 European countries that Gmail violates their privacy laws.
Earlier this month, Chris Hoofnagle, associate director for the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC); Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse; and Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, signed a joint letter to California Attorney General Bill Lockyer urging his office to investigate Gmail.
"We believe that Gmail violates California [law] which governs eavesdropping on confidential communications," the letter said. "In light of California's heightened statutory and Constitutional privacy guarantees, we think it incumbent on the Office of the Attorney General to intervene to protect the integrity of individuals' e-mail communications."
That, in turn, triggered a fuming response from Cato Institute telecommunications studies director Adam Thierer, who accused EPIC and others of becoming "privacy absolutists" who don't distinguish between government forcing citizens to do things against their will and private businesses whose wares are not forced upon any e-mailer.
"Google... isn't holding a gun to anyone's head and forcing them to sign up," Thierer wrote in a letter that made the cyberspace rounds right after the Hoofnagle/Givens/Dixon letter was sent to Lockyer's office. "If you're concerned about how government might co-opt this service for its own nefarious ends, that is not a Google problem, that is a Big Government problem. Let's work together to properly limit the surveillance powers of government instead of shutting down any new private service or technology that we feel the feds might have to chance to abuse."
