Google Inc., on Monday, has added updated its terms of service to inform users about the automatic scanning of their e-mails. The changes are made to avoid complaints related to violation of privacy rights.
In the past months, the search engine giant has received a high number of lawsuits accusing the company of violating laws with regards to the privacy rights of its hundreds of millions of users. Some users accused the company of defying state and federal privacy and wiretapping laws by invading their privacy through e-mail scanning.
Google, on the other hand, has disputed that the users consented to its e-mail scanning activity because it is part of the email delivery process, Reuters reported.
Though it seems that the several complaints have only one nature, Judge Lucy Koh of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California opted not to combine the numerous lawsuits into a single class action suit. She believes that the claims were all different from the other to be consolidated into one.
This decision was very favorable to Google because it washed away possibilities of compensating its users billions in damages if the lawsuits were combined.
To avoid further lawsuits, Google decided to update its terms of service. In the new one, it included a part informing its users that their e-mail messages -- whether be it incoming messages, outgoing messages, or stored messages -- will automatically be scanned and analyzed by a software to create targeted ads and flash significant ads to their users.
The added statement in the terms of service made it clear that, "[Google's] 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."
