Techonomix

Google isn’t exactly a stranger to
allegations that they invade the privacy of
their customers, but now the search engine
is being asked to explain itself in court over
accusations that they snoop through
messages sent through its Gmail service.
Representatives from Google are asking a
federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit waged at
the company’s Gmail platform because the
plaintiffs in the case cannot explicitly prove
that their correspondence is being
unlawfully monitored by the email service.
Brad Scott and Todd Harrington are the
lead plaintiffs in a case that attempts to
call-out the Silicon Valley search engine
company as being in violation of
California’s Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA)
because they believe Gmail conducts
clandestine scans of emails for words and
content, intentionally intercepting private
communiqué as a result without obtaining
the user’s permission. Google, on the other
hand, maintains that only computers
complete all the legwork and that no
humans actually have their eyes on any
emails, also insisting that neither Mr. Scott
nor Mr. Harrington can back up their
claims that any action from Gmail has led
to injury.
Google condemned the case this week,
Courthouse News reports, arguing by way
of a 25-page motion that Gmail scans data
sent over its servers using its "fully
automated processes involve no human
review of any kind" that they insist exists
to screen out viruses and spam "for the
protection of its users." Now they are
asking US District Judge Lucy Koh to dismiss
the complaint with prejudice.
The plaintiffs say that Google’s actions are
enough to land them in court because that
conduct constitutes wiretapping and
eavesdropping in their eyes, a claim which
Google says is “contorting ” state law " in
ways the California Legislature never
intended.”
"In the context of emails, multiple
courts have recognized that no one can
reasonably expect that the emails they
send to others will be free from the
automated processing that is normally
associated with delivering emails,"
Google responds to the case with this
week’s motion.
"Plaintiffs fail to articulate a single
concrete injury stemming from the
automated processing of emails sent to
Gmail users," Google adds. "Plaintiffs
instead rely on conclusory allegations
that their privacy rights were infringed
in the abstract."
Additionally, Google charges that no state
statues being called into question applies
to the plaintiffs’ allegations, writing in their
motion that the terms " electronic
communication," "email," "Internet" and
"computer" are not included.
"Even if the court were to accept
plaintiffs' invitation to judicially rewrite
the statute to reach electronic
communications, choice of law rules
would still preclude applying CIPA to this
case," Google’s motion states.
"CIPA makes clear on its face that it is
intended to protect California residents
and not to regulate California
businesses," Google adds.
Judge Koh is now expected to hear the
motion on March 21, 2013. Meanwhile,
congressional Republicans wrote to the
White House this week to attack a planned
cybersecurity executive order that would
allow third-party companies, such as
Google, to openly share customer-inputted
information with the federal government.
“An executive order exerting influence
over critical infrastructure is not just a
step in the wrong substantive direction, ”
the letter reads. “It will almost certainly
be exploited by other nations to justify
their efforts to regulate the Internet.
This is a most critical time, and we
cannot afford a hasty, unilateral action
that will only serve to bolster the
efforts of less democratic nations to
stifle the very free exchange of ideas
and expression that has allowed the
Internet to flourish across the globe. For
these reasons, we urge you to rethink
the wisdom of an executive order.”
The letter to US President Barack Obama
was signed by 11 GOP members of
Congress, including US Rep. Fred Upton (R-
Michigan), Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-New
Hampshire), Senator Marco Rubio (R-
Florida) and Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah)