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  • From: "Christian Stalberg" <cpsr_rtp AT internet-lab.com>
  • To: <cpsr-rtp AT cpsr.org>, <cpsr-privacy AT cpsr.org>, <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
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  • Subject: [internetworkers] Google's `Gmail' raises concerns MIXED REACTIONS ON PRIVACY ISSUES
  • Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2004 07:23:25 -0500

Posted on Fri, Apr. 02, 2004
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/2004/04/02/business/8337390.htm


Google's `Gmail' raises concerns
MIXED REACTIONS ON PRIVACY ISSUES
By Michael Bazeley
Mercury News

Google -- the company whose founders vowed to ``do no evil'' with their
products -- is raising concerns about privacy with a new e-mail service that
will include targeted advertising based on scans of private e-mail messages.

Announced Wednesday, the ``Gmail'' service hasn't even officially launched,
but it is already alienating some who are worried that Google will snoop on
their private electronic conversations.

Google officials, including co-founder Larry Page, said such concerns are
unfounded, noting that company computers, not people, will be analyzing the
e-mail messages and matching them to ads in a database. The company posted a
privacy policy on its Web site Wednesday night that promises that ``No human
reads your mail to target ads or other information without your consent.''

But many potential customers are not convinced, calling the new program
``creepy'' and ``scary.''

``So, not satisfied with indexing all public content, they want to index the
private content too and make it searchable?'' one unidentified person posted
on the WebmasterWorld Web site, geared to Web site operators. ``Man, and
they wonder why there are conspiracy theories!''

The free Web-based mail service, expected to launch in the coming weeks, is
similar to offerings from Yahoo and Microsoft. Like those companies, Google
hopes to pay for the service by embedding advertising in messages.

Personalized ads

But while Yahoo uses generic banner ads, Google plans to include small text
ads that relate directly to the content of e-mail messages.

Google will deliver the ads through its AdSense program, launched a year ago
and used widely on Web sites. The service will analyze e-mail content and
try to attach ads that are relevant to the messages.

The hope is that the personalized ads, which will appear on the right side
of messages, will entice people to click through to advertiser Web sites.

Elizabeth Coen, who works at a Manhattan literary agency and wrote about
Gmail on her Weblog, said she is only mildly concerned about the possibility
of Google invading her privacy.

``From what I understand, Google will simply be scanning the e-mail for key
words related to ads, which runs the risk of wayward/humorous marketing, at
the least,'' Coen said in an e-mail. ``You don't want to write to your
grandma about breast cancer and have it come with an ad for porn. But then,
people get a big kick out of Googled stuff, so the ads in themselves may
turn into a cultural joke.''

But Chris Hoofnagle, associate director of the Electronic Privacy
Information Center, saw nothing funny about the ads.

``It's an interference into an area where people have enjoyed a great deal
of privacy,'' Hoofnagle said. ``It's like a telemarketer listening in to
your phone call and then trying to sell you something.''

Don Cooper, a Web site operator and technical consultant in New Orleans,
said he worries Google will pull information from e-mail messages and create
a database of users' personal information.

``I don't necessarily believe they will read the e-mails,'' said Cooper, who
criticized the service on the WebmasterWorld site. ``I think they could
extract information from them. I think that as this starts to shake out and
people realize the more information Google has on them, there will be a
backlash.''

Laws in effect

But other privacy experts said they can't imagine Google violating the
federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which explicitly prohibits
humans from intercepting and reading e-mail messages, with few exceptions.

``It's one place where we do have privacy laws that protect us,'' said Ari
Schwartz, associate director of the Center for Democracy and Technology in
Washington, D.C. ``If they're not sharing information, if it's staying
inside, I don't see a big problem. Just because something is personalized
doesn't mean it's an invasion of privacy. In fact, in some ways it's
encouraging to know that you could personalize something without invading
privacy.''

Page, Google's president of products, said company employees would ``never''
read a user's e-mail, and personal information will not be shared with
advertisers. Page likened Google's analysis of e-mail content to that of
spam filters, which have been used for years without raising privacy
concerns.

``That's why I'm a little baffled by this,'' Page said. ``We take people's
trust in us very seriously. If we were to violate that trust, that would
hurt our business seriously.''

Page added that most e-mail messages will be ad-free because their content
will not match ads in the Google database.


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Contact Michael Bazeley at mbazeley AT mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5642.




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© 2004 Mercury News and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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  • [internetworkers] Google's `Gmail' raises concerns MIXED REACTIONS ON PRIVACY ISSUES, Christian Stalberg, 04/03/2004

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