Gmail Users Should Have No Expectation of Privacy

Google’s legal counsel says Gmail users should have no legitimate expectation of privacy

Google : Don’t Expect Privacy

In response to a lawsuit Google has disclosed that, from the company’s perspective, no one should be expecting their emails to remain private. This is likely news to most gmail users who create a password thinking that limits access to their account and probably expect their emails to be private.

“Plantiffs accuse Google of violating the privacy of its users by mining their personal messages for information that it uses to inform which targeted ads it displays. The suit calls for Google to fully disclose exactly what information it’s taking from emails, and to pay damages for these alleged violations of privacy.

The company argued in its motion to dismiss the lawsuit that “all users of email must necessarily expect that their emails will be subject to automated processing. “

That is an interesting attitude. A clear implication would be allowing the NSA to automatically process everyone’s gmail account emails.

“Google asserts that, in principle, if you entrust your personal messages to a third party, you can’t expect that the third party won’t touch any of that information:

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 to third parties.” Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735, 743-44 (1979).“

On the surface this seems reasonable, that once you send information to someone else you can’t expect them not to share it with other people. However, that is not what Google is saying.

Instead, Google is saying that users of gmail should realize that Google is the third party. By writing an email in gmail the user is essentially sending Google the email and therefore cannot expect privacy. If Google shares those emails with whoever it wants, well, you should have known better.

Sensitive information of 1 Million people breached at Nationwide Insurance

A major security breach at Nationwide Insurance Co., has jeopardized the personal and confidential information of more than a million users in the U.S. after cyber criminals gained access to and breached the security of Nationwide insurance company, which is one of the biggest insurance providers in the nation and has a large number of customers all across the U.S. This is certainly one of the biggest hacking attacks in the recent time which has compromised the credentials of such a large number of people. The breach occurred last week and investigation is being carried out to determine the culprits behind this attack. The attack has affected customers of the company all over the country and in all 50 states, though some states have been hit more severely than others. Moreover, it is not only the customers or policy holders of the company who have been affected by this attack but thousands of non-policy holders are also at risk. Many experts are regarding this breach as a potential security threat as vital information is at stake.

Sensitive information of 1 Million people breached at Nationwide Insurance

The FBI is investigating the breach, which was reported by the company on October 3 this year. According to the spokesman of Nationwide Insurance co. has confirmed in her statement given to a magazine that a portion of the company’s computer network was breached, and has affected customers and others also who requested insurance quotes from Nationwide. As of now, officials have confirmed that more than 30,000 people have been affected in Georgia, and about 12,000 people in South Carolina. The California Department of Insurance announced that more than 5000 people were affected in the state and commented that names, Social security numbers, and other personal credentials were stolen, and that no credit card information was accessed. However, the state that was affected the most was Iowa where more than 90,000 customers and agents of the company were affected which was confirmed by the Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller. Miller said that this cyber attack had affected the customers and also non customers who requested competitive insurance quotes from the Nationwide which means that the actual number of victims can be even higher. The company remains tight lipped about how their database and the network was compromised but has confirmed the date of the attack. Also, the company immediately hired a third-party company to oversee the investigation of the compromised data and to examine the entire computer architecture of the company so as to get an insight about the vulnerabilities that led to this attack and have also denied any misuse of the stolen information so far.

The company has taken reparative action in this regard and is notifying affected individuals through mail and is offering free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services for one year. Moreover, a toll free number, (800) 760 – 1125 was setup for handling queries of affected individuals and general public. The response of the company in this matter has been lauded by industry experts and many have advised the company to restructure its electronic infrastructure so that such incidents are not repeated.