Volume II

Issue : 8: April 15, 2004

• U.S. Broadband Industry May be Forced to Share Following Cable Modem Decision
• UN E-commerce Group Releases Revised Draft Convention on the Use of Data Messages in International Contracts
• Supreme Court of Canada to Hear Criminal Spam Case
• U.S. Senate Bill Introduced to Grant Federal Government Exclusive Regulatory Authority Over VoIP
• U.S. Advocacy Groups Lobby FCC to Protect VoIP from Regulations
• CRTC Releases Preliminary View on VoIP Services
• PGA Tour Wins Battle over the Internet Posting of Real-Time Golf Scores
• British Columbia and Alberta Exempt from PIPEDA
• Canadian Privacy Commissioner's E-kit for Businesses
• Eight European Nations Fail to Implement the E-Privacy Directive
• Google Mail Alleged to Violate European Privacy Laws
• Florida Court Orders RIAA to Bring Individual Suits against Alleged File Swappers
• Federal Government Called Upon to Ban Internet Pharmacies
• Internet Pharmacy Sues Health Canada

Home > Volume II > Issue 8: April 15, 2004 > Google Mail Alleged to Violate European Privacy Laws

Google Mail Alleged to Violate European Privacy Laws

Google has made a new email service available. The service is free but users have to agree to certain conditions. For instance, residual copies of email may remain on Google's systems even after they have been deleted from a mailbox; Google will scan users' emails in order to paste appropriate advertising into messages; and Google may also link together cookies from both email and web use records. A citizens' group has lodged a complaint in the United Kingdom alleging when signing up for the email, the email service violates privacy rights and should not be permitted. The argument is that a service provider cannot use terms of contract to opt out of legal privacy requirements.

For a summary, see:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040405/80/eqcm0.html