Lawsuit Alleges Google Violates Anti-Wiretapping Law, Data-Mines Gmail Users
The plaintiffs are accusing Google of violating federal and state anti-wiretapping law by scanning millions of students' emails and building "surreptitious" profiles to target them with advertising.
Students who use Google’s Apps for Education are accusing the company of violating the Wiretap Act, which prohibits the interception of wire, oral or electronic communications. A group of nine plaintiffs hopes to turn the case into a class action suit.
Institutions of higher education and K-12 schools throughout the world use Apps for Education for free online applications such as email, calendar, word processing, spreadsheet and collaborative document sharing.
Google admitted to Education Week that it automatically “scans and indexes” the email of Apps for Education users even though ads are off by default, but that its automated processes can’t actually be turned off — even for users who choose not to receive ads.
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