Google tells Gmail customers don't expect email privacy

PEOPLE using Google's email service should not expect privacy, the internet giant is arguing.
Its lawyers said anyone communicating via Gmail had no right to complain if the company used the contents for targeted adverts.

It was like someone sending a letter and a business colleague opening it for them, they argued in court.
Google makes around $42 billion a year, mostly from advertising. A class-action lawsuit, filed in a district court in San Jose, California, accuses Google of breaching wire-tapping laws by scanning emails sent to Gmail and using the details to dictate advertising.

In a bid to dismiss the case, which is ongoing, Google said 'a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy when turning over information voluntarily to third parties'.

Google said: "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 cannot be surprised if their emails are processed by the recipient's (email provider)."

John Simpson, of US campaign group Consumer Watchdog, said the analogy was "wrongheaded", adding: "Sending an email is like giving a letter to the Post Office. I expect the Post Office to deliver the letter based on the address. I don't expect the postman to open my letter and read it."

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/biztech/don8217t-expect-email-privacy-google-tells-gmail-customers/story-fn5lic6c-1226697731383#ixzz2c0YIjRdf

Smartphones Overtake Feature Phone Sales

435 million cellphones were sold worldwide in the 2nd quarter of 2013 and 225 million of them are smartphones, which would represent a massive increase of 46.5% year on year. The 210 million are the feature phones category that experienced a 21% drop in total sales, when compared with the same period in 2012.

Google’s Android mobile operating system does seem to dominate majority of the world’s smartphone market share, taking a 79% chunk, and Samsung is unsurprisingly the main driver behind this figure after moving a whopping 71 million devices in total throughout Q2 2012. While Apple’s iPhone sales have increased to 31.9 million units, it saw its worldwide share shrink to 14.2% from 18.8% during the previous year’s corresponding quarter. When do you think that the last feature phone will roll out from a factory somewhere in this world? I suppose as long as the most basic smartphone remains more expensive than a basic feature phone, there will always be a market for the latter.


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