Judge Lucy Koh (made semi-famous for asking an Apple lawyer if he was smoking crack during the Apple v Samsung patent case) has released a 43 page order which essentially boils down to allowing the two law suits alleging Google is performing illegal methods of gathering information. The case specifically targets the fact that Google gathers information from their user’s email messages, which is then used to provide more targeted advertisements and other services.
Interestingly, the facts of the case are not in dispute. Google openly acknowledges that they use this method of information gathering, and haven’t hidden it from anyone since the beginning. The big question will be whether or not it is legal for them to be doing so.
Both legal suits involve multiple plaintiffs, and were filed separately. It is possible that they will combine into one large class-action suit, which would significantly raise the stakes for Google.
While Google is the company being targeted in these suits, most other email providers and even social networks are undoubtedly watching it closely. Facebook, for example, uses the information stored on their systems in order to provide more targeted ads. The information provided on Facebook is different in that it is often published to larger groups, though it is still not public so it would likely fall under the same legal status. Tweets, on the other hand, are different because they are entirely public.
If this does turn into a large class action lawsuit, it will likely take a significant amount of time to be settled. With over a half a billion people using the gMail service worldwide, Google could be facing enormous penalties if their practices are found to be illegal.
This move will likely bring in many new users to Google’s library of applications.
