Mercury News editorial on California anti-Gmail bill, revised [priv]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

-------- 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 () mercurynews com>
To: 'declan () well com' <declan () well com>

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.



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