April 15, 2004
(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 service. While we're still in a limited test of Gmail, we welcome and appreciate feedback on how we can improve the offering for our users," he said via e-mail.
The technology that presents users with relevant Gmail advertisements operates in the same way as all popular Web mail features that process e-mail content to provide a user benefit, such as spam filtering or virus detection, he said.
"We are confident that Gmail is fully compliant with data protection laws worldwide. Google actively solicits user feedback on our privacy policies. If they can be made clearer or otherwise improved, we want to hear about it. We look forward to a detailed dialogue with data protection authorities across Europe to ensure their concerns are heard and resolved," he said.
A spokeswoman for the ICO said that as long as Google makes the conditions of its service transparent to people when they sign up, the proposed service shouldn't violate U.K. data protection laws.
"As long as Google makes it clear that it is monitoring e-mail usage and passing that information on for marketing purposes, there shouldn't be a problem. But I want to make it clear that Google has not even launched the service yet and has agreed to work with us to make sure that its notification process is very clear," she said.
The ICO spokeswoman added that representatives from Google working with the ICO had been surprised by the reaction to its proposed e-mail service. "I don't think they thought this was going to be a problem," she said.
Not only has the data privacy issue cropped up as a potential problem for Gmail, but it also appears to be a problem that won't easily go away.
"I'm a bit angry at the ICO because they've been putting around the idea that the Gmail service as planned is OK simply if you make it clear that they are going to scan and then permanently store your information. That is not the point," Privacy International's Davies said. "This is about having rights over your own e-mail, and Google is going to have to give you control over your own e-mail. This is virgin territory."
Privacy International is concerned that Google is treating a serious privacy issue purely as a public relations issue and has vowed to press the matter further if the ICO doesn't pledge to gain a series of guarantees and protections from Google for potential users of Gmail.
"We will be filing simultaneous complaints with the data privacy regulations of every other European nation on April 22 should we not receive a satisfactory response from the IOC," Davies said. "Germany, for example, has much stricter policies regarding privacy, and they wouldn't blink at taking severe action. Sweden, as well, has shown a willingness to addressed similar issues."
Jeanna Thorslund, senior information officer of Sweden's Data Inspection Board, said that though the board hasn't received any complaints about Gmail, it was aware of the planned e-mail service and will monitor the situation.
In a similar fashion, representatives from the European Commission, the European Union's executive body, said they were ready to look into potential legal conflicts should the need arise.
"We are not in an active stance of waiting for complaints about Gmail, and we are not at the moment investigating anything specific, but we will keep an eye on the situation," said the commission's spokesman for enterprise and information society issues, Peter Sandler.
Juan Carlos Perez of the IDG News bureau in Miami contributed to this report.