-------- Original Message -------- Subject: For politech: Mercury News editorial on Figueroa's Gmail legislat ion Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 10:24:03 -0700 From: Helft, Miguel <MHelft@private> To: 'declan@private' <declan@private> Gmail privacy bill just needs a tweak AS WRITTEN, IT COULD STIFLE INNOVATION Mercury News Editorial It's a relief to find out that state Sen. Liz Figueroa doesn't want to ground Google's free e-mail service before it takes off. Last month, under the guise of protecting privacy, Figueroa, a Democrat from Fremont, introduced a bill that would have done just that. The twice rewritten bill now has the right aim: to bar Google, or any other e-mail service, from using the content of e-mails to build profiles of users or to share users' private information with others. Those are the real privacy concerns raised by Google's innovative and controversial e-mail service. Unfortunately, Figueroa's amended bill could have the unintended consequence of restricting innovation. If the bill clears the Senate this week, Figueroa should amend it before it heads to the Assembly. Google's new e-mail system, dubbed Gmail, sparked controversy over the tradeoff it offers its users. In exchange for 1 gigabyte of free storage, users agree to have their incoming e-mail scanned by a computer, which then displays ads based on words found in the e-mail. Since Gmail users consent to the intrusion, their privacy is not at issue. Figueroa and some privacy groups argued that non-Gmail users who correspond with Gmail subscribers will have their messages scanned without their consent. That's where the privacy concerns arise. But e-mail messages are already scanned by scores of applications, from spam filters and anti-virus software, to automated tech support systems, and e-mail forwarding applications, to name a few. Gmail is no different. Google has promised that the sole purpose of its e-mail scanning is to deliver targeted ads. It will not collect information that links customers to the content of the e-mails they receive. Figueroa is right to codify that pledge into law. It may not be long until a less user-friendly company is tempted to snoop more intrusively into its customers' e-mail communications. But rather than codifying what companies can't do with the content of an e-mail -- keep track of it, share it with third parties -- Figueroa's bill codifies what they can do. That would force entrepreneurs to check every potential e-mail innovation to make sure it's authorized by the law. Figueroa's bill, SB 1822, has improved dramatically since it was first introduced. With only a minor change, it could become a truly sound privacy bill. _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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