When Google announced they were starting a free email service that included message-based advertising, the regulation advocates immediately came out in full force. But the attempt to outlaw 'Gmail' has a number of anti-privacy facets of its own.

The bill was filed in Sacramento by California state Senator Liz Figueroa. She started making noise about such a bill when the Gmail concept was announced a few weeks ago about banning any email provider from scanning the contents of an email message before it gets to the recipient. Much of the reaction to her idea pointed out that this would outlaw antispam and antivirus programs run by many providers.

That much stuck and the bill as introduced contains exceptions for those applications. but the bill is still so broadly written that it could wind up imposing on the privacy of many Internet users. Declan McCullagh of CNet News points out, for instance, that the bill as written would bar ISPs from offering a service to segregate or delete emails with dirty jokes. This is a service many consumers may want for family email accounts. Many people value privacy as the freedom to avoid intrusions on decency standards set by the family.

Similary, ISP programs to leave messages with large attachments on the server would be barred.

The larger point here is that consumers have the right to make the kinds of tradeoffs between security and privacy that they deem appropriate for their own personal tastes, values, and constraints fiscal or otherwise. Some consumers may consider Gmail's advertising, which places ads related to the text of the user's email elsewhere on the page, less intrusive on private communications than practices of other free email providers -- such as appending advertisements for their own service on every message sent by users.

The Figueroa bill would also outlaw other conveniences that have less to do with privacy of communications.

Figueroa's bill illustrates the folly of going to the state in order to seek privacy. The net result is not only a less individualized privacy that takes account of individual consumer preferences, but less privacy overall. That is the hallmark of a true privacy villain.

By James Plummer

government surveillance

medical privacy

financial privacy

online privacy

News | Press Releases | Online Privacy Tools | Privacy Principles | Experts | Links
About NCC | About Consumer Alert | Contact Us | NCC Privacy Home