Privacy issues continue to dog Google's Gmail

IDG News Service - Since announcing Gmail two weeks ago, Google Inc. has been forced to defend the planned Web-based e-mail service against accusations that it may violate users' privacy. In the face of the criticism, Google has begun to express a willingness to be flexible about how it offers the service.
"This is one of the hottest issues we've ever dealt with in terms of Internet issues," said Simon Davies, director of the privacy advocate group Privacy International.
Gmail, announced April 1, is planned as a free, Web-based e-mail service, similar to Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Hotmail and Yahoo Inc.'s Yahoo Mail, though its 1GB of storage is much more than these other popular free services offer (see story).
But Google is planning to scan e-mail and add advertisements that it thinks are relevant to the messages. In addition, the Gmail privacy policy warns that messages, even if "deleted" by a user, may still be stored in the system, long after users have closed their accounts, which some privacy advocates believe may be in conflict with U.S. and European data protection and privacy laws.
Since the Gmail announcement, Spymac Network Inc. has launched a free online e-mail service that matches the 1GB of storage that Google is offering, but it has pointedly said it won't do keyword searching or tie advertisements to the service.
Last week, Privacy International filed a formal complaint with the U.K.'s Information Commissioner Office (ICO) requesting that action be taken against Gmail.
In the U.S., California state Sen. Liz Figueroa said the privacy issues were leading her to consider proposing legislation to stop Google from launching its Gmail service in its current form.
Earlier this month, a coalition of 28 privacy and civil liberties groups wrote Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and urged them to rethink the service because of its potentially dangerous precedents for automated scanning of private communications (see story).

In the face of such opposition, Google has given signs that it may be rethinking how the Gmail service is structured. The service would require all users to participate in the ad service -- that is, users would have to accept the display of ads and the scanning of their e-mail messages -- but that could change, as could many other things, since Gmail is in an early testing phase, a Google spokesman said yesterday.
"Google has the highest regard for the privacy of our users' information. We have taken great care to architect Gmail to protect user privacy and to deliver an innovative and useful