Class action against Google over Gmail scanning allowed to continue

A US judge has ruled that Google scanning your emails for advertising purposes is not defensible as standard practice.

Non Gmail users are angry that Google is scanning e-mails they send to

A JUDGE in the US has ruled that a class-action lawsuit filed against Google for reading customers emails can proceed.

The search giant has had to contend with ongoing criticism about its policy of scanning users’ emails for marketing purposes.

The lawsuit which Google tried to have squashed takes issue with the company’s policy to intercept and scan emails before they reach your account.

According to the Courthouse News Service, the lawsuit was originally filed in September 2015 by users of other email services who sent emails to contacts with Gmail addresses.

Since the plaintiffs never signed up for Gmail, they are arguing that they never agreed to have their emails scanned by Google’s systems.

The tech giant tried to argue that such a mechanism was within the “ordinary course of business”.

However in a 38-page order, US District Judge Lucy Koh said she didn’t agree.

While noting that Google needs to scan emails for purposes of spam and virus prevention, she dismissed the notion that scanning emails for the purpose of advertising is protected under the ordinary course of business clause.

“Under the plain meaning of the Wiretap Act, the ‘ordinary course of business’ exception protects an electronic communication service provider’s interception of email where there is ‘some nexus between the need to engage in the alleged interception and the [provider’s] ultimate business, that is, the ability to provide the underlying service or good,’” she wrote.

However it will likely be a long while until the plaintiffs can even begin thinking about a payday as Google is expected to fight tooth and nail to protect the way it runs its service and the plaintiffs still face a number of hurdles.