MA- Debra Marquis filed a class action law suit against Google for scanning emails sent to gmail accounts.
Debra Marquis of Boxford, MA has filed a class action law suit claiming Google Inc. violated state privacy laws by scanning email messages between users of the search giant’s Gmail service and users of other providers, like AOL, and using the information to place online advertisements.
The complaint was filed July 29 in Suffolk Superior Court, is intended to be a class action suit. Complainant Debra Marquis is seeking other people who don’t use Gmail accounts, but have dispatched emails to Gmail users, to join the action.
Marquis claimed in the suit that non-Google email users did not authorize the company to have their messages scanned. Through its Gmail service, Google’s technology examines e-mail transmissions of its users to find keywords or content to present advertising that may be of interest to Gmail account holders.
Marquis’s attorney alleged that Google violated her privacy and cited the Massachusetts Wiretapping Act, a law that states it is illegal to record “any wire or oral communication” without the consent of all parties involved.
Google uses automated technology to scan emails sent through the Gmail system to serve relevant advertisements to Gmail users. Users signing up for a Gmail account must consent to such scanning in order to register. In the complaint, the plaintiff stated that as a non-Gmail user, she never gave Google her consent to scan emails she sent to recipients with Gmail addresses, and that her “personal or property interests or privacy” were violated by Google’s automated email scanning. The plaintiff seeks the maximum damages allowable under the statute, including liquidated damages at a rate of $100 per day of violation or $1000 (whichever is higher), punitive damages, and attorney’s fees. MGL Ch. 272 § 99(Q)
Complaint:
http://www.zwillgenblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Marquis-v-Google1.pdf
Link:
http://www.zwillgenblog.com/2011/08/23/google-sued-in-massachusetts-for-scanning-emails-sent-to-gmail-account/