[Politech] Pro-regulatory groups: Gmail may be illegal, "must" be suspended [priv]

From: Declan McCullagh (declan@private)
Date: Wed Apr 07 2004 - 15:52:25 PDT

  • Next message: Declan McCullagh: "[Politech] Weekly column: Be careful about using Gmail, but don't ban it [priv]"

    [So if a company offers a service and its customers voluntarily agree
    to use it (in fact, let's say they *want* it), the company may not do
    it? It seems like these regulatory enthusiasts want the government --
    some government, any government -- to stop in and interfere. Making
    your point of view heard is one thing, but calling for government
    action is another. If I'm mistaken and these groups oppose government
    action against Google, I hope they'll write in and let the list
    know. --Declan]
    
    
    http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/GmailLetter.htm
    
       FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
       Media Contacts:
    
       Pam Dixon, Executive Director,
       World Privacy Forum
       Office: (760) 436-2489, Mobile: (760) 470-2000
       pdixon@private
       pdixon@private
       www.worldprivacyforum.org 
    
       Beth Givens, Director,
       Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
       Phone: (619) 298- 3396
       bgivens@private 
       www.privacyrights.org 
    
               Twenty Eight Privacy and Civil Liberties Organizations
                           Urge Google to Suspend Gmail 
    
       San  Diego,  CA, April 6, 2004 -- The World Privacy Forum and 27 other
       privacy  and  civil  liberties  organizations  have  written  a letter
       [inserted  below]  calling  upon  Google  to suspend its Gmail service
       until  the  privacy  issues  are adequately addressed. The letter also
       calls   upon  Google  to  clarify  its  written  information  policies
       regarding data retention and data sharing among its business units.
    
       The 28 organizations are voicing their concerns about Google's plan to
       scan  the  text  of  all  incoming  messages  for  the  purposes of ad
       placement,   noting  that  the  scanning  of  confidential  email  for
       inserting  third  party  ad  content violates the implicit trust of an
       email  service  provider.  The  scanning creates lower expectations of
       privacy in the email medium and may establish dangerous precedents.
    
       Other  concerns  include  the unlimited period for data retention that
       Google's  current  policies  allow,  and  the potential for unintended
       secondary uses of the information Gmail will collect and store.
    
       ------------------
       An Open Letter to Google Regarding Its Proposed Gmail Service
    
       From:
       World Privacy Forum
       Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
              and
       Grayson Barber, Privacy Advocate
       Bits of Freedom (Netherlands)
       Murray Mollard, Executive Director
       British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (Canada)
       CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering)
       Consumer Action
       Consumer Federation of America
       Consumer Federation of California
       Consumer Task Force for Automotive Issues
       Electronic Privacy Information Center
       Foundation for Information Policy Research
       Mari Frank, Esq., Author of Identity Theft Survival Kit
       Simson L. Garfinkel, Author of Database Nation
       Edward Hasbrouck, Author and Consumer Advocate
       Massachusetts Consumer Assistance Council
       Massachusetts Consumers' Coalition
       National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators (NACAA)
       National Consumers League
       PrivacyActivism
       Privacy International (United Kingdom)
       Privacy Rights Now Coalition
       Privacy Times
       Private Citizen, Inc.
       Privaterra (Canada)
       Public Information Research, Inc.
       Utility Consumers' Action Network
    
       April 6, 2004
    
       Sergey Brin, Co-Founder & President, Technology
       Larry Page, Co-Founder & President, Products
       Google Inc.
       1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
       Mountain View, CA 94043
    
       Dear Mr. Brin and Mr. Page: 
    
       Google's  proposed Gmail service and the practices and policies of its
       business units raise significant and troubling questions.
    
       First,  Google  has  proposed scanning the text of all incoming emails
       for  ad  placement.  The  scanning  of confidential email violates the
       implicit  trust  of  an email service provider. Further, the unlimited
       period for data retention poses unnecessary risks of misuse.
    
       Second,  Google's  overall data retention and correlation policies are
       problematic  in  their lack of clarity and broad scope. Google has not
       set  specific,  finite limits on how long it will retain user account,
       email,  and  transactional  data. And Google has not set clear written
       policies about its data sharing between business units.
    
       Third,  the  Gmail  system  sets  potentially dangerous precedents and
       establishes  reduced  expectations of privacy in email communications.
       These precedents may be adopted by other companies and governments and
       may persist long after Google is gone.
    
       We  urge you to suspend the Gmail service until the privacy issues are
       adequately
       addressed.
    
       Email Scanning in Google's Proposed Gmail Service
    
       The  email  text  scanning  infrastructure  that  Google  has built is
       powerful  and global in reach. Google has not created written policies
       to   date  that  adequately  protect  consumers  from  the  unintended
       consequences of building this structure. It is, in fact, arguable that
       no  policy  could adequately protect consumers from future abuses. The
       societal   consequences  of  initiating  a  global  infrastructure  to
       continually  monitor the communications of individuals are significant
       and far-reaching with immediate and long-term privacy implications.
    
       Currently, individuals may have the understanding that Google's system
       is not that different in nature from scanning messages for spam, which
       is  a  common  practice  today.  There  is  a  fundamental difference,
       however.  With Gmail, individuals' incoming emails will be scanned and
       seeded  with  ads.  This will happen every time Gmail subscribers open
       their  emails  to  re-read  them,  no  matter  how long they have been
       stored. Inserting new content from third party advertisers in incoming
       emails  is  fundamentally  different than removing harmful viruses and
       unwanted spam.
    
       Another  potential  misconception  about  the Gmail system is that the
       scanning  will  take  place in isolation. The email is scanned, and ad
       text  is delivered. But that is not the end of the story. The delivery
       of  the  ad  text  based on emails is a continual "on the fly" stream.
       This  technology  requires  a  substantial  supply  chain of directory
       structures, databases, logs, and a long memory. Auditing trails of the
       ad  text  are  kept,  and  the  data could be correlated with the data
       Google  collects  via its other business units such as its search site
       and its networking site, Orkut.
    
       Google  has  countered  criticism  of  Gmail  by  highlighting  that a
       computer,  not  a  human, will scan the content of the e-mail, thereby
       making  the system less invasive. We think a computer system, with its
       greater storage, memory, and associative ability than a human's, could
       be just as invasive as a human listening to the communications, if not
       more so.
    
       That  the  Gmail scanning and monitoring is being used for advertising
       right  now  is  distracting,  because  it is a transient use. Scanning
       personal  communications in the way Google is proposing is letting the
       proverbial  genie  out  of  the  bottle. Today, Google wants to make a
       profit  from  selling  ads.  But  tomorrow,  another  company may have
       completely different ideas about how to use such an infrastructure and
       the data it captures.
    
       Google  could  --  tomorrow -- by choice or by court order, employ its
       scanning  system  for  law  enforcement  purposes. We note that in one
       recent  case,  the  Federal  Bureau  of Investigation obtained a court
       order  compelling  an  automobile  navigation  service  to convert its
       system  into a tool for monitoring in-car conversations. How long will
       it be until law enforcement compels Google into a similar situation?
    
       Google has been quick to state that it does not intend to correlate or
       share consumer data between its business units. But unless Google puts
       a  consumer  promise into its privacy policy that states it will never
       correlate  the  data,  then  Google is not putting its money where its
       mouth  is.  In  a nation of laws, Google needs to make its promises in
       writing.
    
       Gmail's Potential Conflict with International Law 
    
       The   Gmail   system   may   conflict   with  Europe's  privacy  laws,
       specifically,   Directive   95/46/EC,   also  called  the  EU  Privacy
       Directive.  This  directive  states,  among  other things, that users'
       consent  must  be  informed,  specific,  and  unambiguous (pursuant to
       Article 7(a) of Dir. 95/46/EC).
    
       As  it  has  been  proposed,  and  based  on the current Gmail privacy
       policy,  the  consent  of  EU-based  Gmail users cannot necessarily be
       considered  informed,  specific,  and  unambiguous  in  regards to the
       scanning,  storage  and  further processing of their e-mails. The need
       for  informed,  specific,  and unambiguous consent also applies to the
       potential  linking  of EU citizens' e-mails to their search histories.
       Additional  issues  with  data  retention  may also exist under the EU
       Privacy Directive.
    
       The Dangers of Lowered Privacy Expectations in the Email Medium
    
       Ultimately, however, this discussion is not solely about Google. It is
       about  the  global  tools Google is building, and the ways these tools
       and  systems  stand  to alter how individuals perceive the sanctity of
       private communications in the electronic sphere. These perceptions and
       standards may persist long after Google as a company is gone.
    
       Google  needs  to  realize  that  many  different  companies  and even
       governments  can  and likely will walk through the email scanning door
       once  it  is  opened.  As  people become accustomed to the notion that
       email  scanning  for  ad  delivery is acceptable, "mission creep" is a
       real  possibility.  Other  companies  and  governments  may  have very
       different  ideas about data correlation than Google does, and may have
       different  motivations for scanning the body of email messages. Google
       itself,  in  the  absence  of clear written promises and policies, may
       experience  a  change  of  course  and choose to profit from its large
       stores of consumer data culled from private communications.
    
       The lowered expectations of email privacy that Google's system has the
       potential   to   create  is  no  small  matter.  Once  an  information
       architecture  is  built,  it  functions  much  like a building -- that
       building  may be used by many different owners, and its blueprints may
       be replicated in many other places.
    
       Google's  technology  is  proprietary,  but the precedents it sets are
       not.
    
       Conclusion 
    
       We request the following of Google:
    
       1.  First, Google must suspend its implementation of scanning the full
       text of emails for determining ad placement.
    
       2.  Second,  Google  must  clarify  its information retention and data
       correlation   policy   amongst   its  business  units,  partners,  and
       affiliates.  This  means that Google must set clear data retention and
       deletion  dates  and  establish  detailed  written policies about data
       sharing and correlation amongst its business units and partners.
    
       Respectfully submitted and signed, 
    
       Pam Dixon, Executive Director
       World Privacy Forum
    
       Beth Givens, Director
       Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
    
         and the following individuals and organizations:
    
       Grayson Barber
       Privacy Advocate
    
       Maurice Wessling
       Bits of Freedom (Netherlands)
    
       Murray Mollard, Executive Director
       British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (Canada)
    
       Katherine Albrecht, Ed.M., Founder and Director
       CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering)
    
       Ken McEldowney, Executive Director
       Consumer Action
    
       Jean Ann Fox, Director of Consumer Protection
       Consumer Federation of America
    
       Richard Holober, Director
       Consumer Federation of California
    
       Will deHoo, Director
       Consumer Task Force For Automotive Issues
    
       Chris Hoofnagle, Associate Director
       Electronic Privacy Information Center
    
       Ian Brown
       Foundation for Information Policy Research
    
       Mari Frank, Esq.
       Author of the Identity Theft Survival Kit
    
       Simson L. Garfinkel
       MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
       Author, Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century
    
       Edward Hasbrouck
       Author and Consumer Advocate
    
       Paul Schrader, Executive Director
       Massachusetts Consumer Assistance Council
    
       Paul J. Schlaver, Chair
       Massachusetts Consumers' Coalition
    
       Kathleen Thuner, President
       National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators (NACAA)
    
       Linda Golodner, President
       National Consumers League
    
       Deborah Pierce, Executive Director
       PrivacyActivism
    
       Simon Davies
       Privacy International (United Kingdom)
    
       Remar Sutton, Co-Founder
       Privacy Rights Now Coalition
    
       Evan Hendricks
       Privacy Times
    
       Robert Bulmash, President
       Private Citizen, Inc.
    
       Robert Guerra, Managing Director
       Privaterra    (project    of   Computer   Professionals   for   Social
       Responsibility) (Canada)
    
       Daniel Brandt, President
       Public Information Research, Inc.
    
       Michael Shames, Executive Director
       Utility Consumers' Action Network
    
                                       - 30 -
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