14 DAY TRIAL // One Russian legislator is suspecting that Google’s brand new changes to the Terms of Service are actually violating the country’s law regarding personal data.
As Softpedia reported last week, Google has now put it in writing that the company scans your emails in order to better target ads. The Internet giant doesn’t exactly read the content of your emails, but it does pick up on key words so it can refine the ads you’re being served, but also in order to weed out spam and malware.
“Our automated systems analyze your content (including emails) to provide you personally relevant product features, such as customized search results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection. This analysis occurs as the content is sent, received, and when it is stored,” reads Google’s new Terms of Service.
Lyudmila Bokova, Russian senator, has already addressed the search giant and the Russian consumer rights agency regarding this matter.
Due to the wording of this specific paragraph in the Terms of Service, Bokova fears that the corporation won’t just store and transfer user information, but it will also modify it by translating, distributing and publishing it.
“I think that these terms of service are creating a potential for violating the Russian law, in particular the law on personal data. I want to get an answer on how the company itself appraises this threat,” Bokova said.
The State Duma Committee for Information Policy supports the move. Andrey Tumanov, a member of the committee, said that personal data can be used to harm users and the effect from using such information can be worse than a nuclear bomb.
The American Internet giant is already facing some troubles over its scanning practices, which aren’t exactly new. In fact, Google has been doing this for years, even though it never really hid what it was doing.
The company is currently going to court over this exact issue as it is being accused of violating several laws, including the federal anti-wiretapping statuses. Google has managed to avoid a class action on this topic as non-Gmail users were also trying to get involved.
Identifying those affected would have taken an unprecedented (and impossible) effort because Google would have to send an email notice to all non-Gmail addresses that have made it into the company’s systems.
Google is likely to face inquiries like the one in Russia in numerous countries.