14 DAY TRIAL // Google and Rocky Mountain Bank have settled the issue regarding a sensitive document sent by accident to a Gmail address off court and filed motions to dismiss the case. The account will be reactivated as the email in question was never opened and has since been deleted.
As we previously reported, an employee from the Wilson, Wyoming branch of Rocky Mountain Bank inadvertently attached a file containing sensitive financial and personal information of 1,325 customers to an e-mail and sent it to a Gmail address. The bank tried to contact the account owner without success by sending other email messages and eventually contacted Google in order to obtain information.
The Mountain View-based Internet giant made it clear that it would not breach the privacy of the person holding the Gmail account without a subpoena. The bank filed a case seeking a court order to have the account deactivated and force Google to reveal information about the identity of the mailbox owner, which it eventually obtained.
Forced to comply, Google suspended the email account of an innocent person, but CNET News reports that things won't remain like that for long. According to a Rocky Mountain Bank legal representative, the issue has been resolved, as Google determined that the email was never opened and proceeded to completely remove it from the system. Therefore, the temporary restraining order was lifted. However, the employee responsible for causing the incident did not suffer any consequences for their actions.
Many civil liberties advocates expressed their disapproval of the court's decision to order an innocent person's email account deactivated, because it sets a very bad precedent. Some have argued that the decision violated the user's First Amendment rights, in case the individual is a US citizen. But even if that's not the case, email is a big part of a lot of people's lives. Having this channel of communication disrupted, even for a limited period of time, can be detrimental to one's business and other activities.