[Kaitou Ace]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

Yes, it is very simple reading. Google clearly quotes the Smith v. Maryland case: “a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over to third parties.” Google being the third party they feel that the information is being voluntarily turned over to them by the non-gmail users.

Oh so then

If I get an email sent to my non-gmail address from a gmail address, or the other way around, Google gathers information on me that is not related to a Gmail account of my own. To go back to the example, the recipient's assistant doesn't just put the information from the letter in a folder for the recipient, but makes a folder on the sender for his/her own use.

This is just something you made up. That's what I was asking. Should've just said so, I wouldn't have wasted time replying further.


Google is very clearly citing Smith v Maryland in the context of automated processing necessary for email to work, not in the "All your data is belong to us."

I mean

Just as a sender of a letter to a business colleague cannot be surprised that the recipient’s assistant opens the letter, people who use web-based email today cannot be surprised if their communications are processed by the recipient’s ECS provider in the course of delivery. Indeed,“a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over tothird parties.” Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735, 743-44 (1979). In particular, the Court noted that persons communicating through a service provided by an intermediary (in the Smith case, a telephone call routed through a telephone company) must necessarily expect that the communication will be subject to the intermediary’s systems. For example, the Court explained that in using the telephone, a person “voluntarily convey[s] numerical information to the telephone company and ‘expose[s]’ that information to its equipment in the ordinary course of business.” (emphasis added).The same is true of email sent through an ECS provider. As numerous courts have held,the automated processing of email is so widely understood and accepted that the act of sending anemail constitutes implied consent to automated processing as a matter of law.

Is not all that convoluted at all and provides all the context necessary.

This is the entirety of the claim that google is making. You are free to pretend that it says something else, or take bits out of context, but please don't claim that the actual text says anything of that nature.