Boxford woman sues Google over privacy issues

By Johnny Diaz, Globe Staff

A Boxford woman has filed a class action law suit claiming Google Inc. violated state privacy laws by scanning email messages between users of the search giant’s Gmail service and users of other providers, like AOL, and using the information to place online advertisements.

The complaint was filed July 29 in Suffolk Superior Court, is intended to be a class action suit. Complainant Debra Marquis is seeking other people who don’t use Gmail accounts, but have dispatched emails to Gmail users, to join the action.

Marquis claimed in the suit that non-Google email users did not authorize the company to have their messages scanned. Through its Gmail service, Google’s technology examines e-mail transmissions of its users to find keywords or content to present advertising that may be of interest to Gmail account holders.

Marquis’s attorney alleged that Google violated her privacy and cited the Massachusetts Wiretapping Act, a law that states it is illegal to record “any wire or oral communication” without the consent of all parties involved.

Because Marquis is an America On-line (AOL) email user, she “did not consent to Google’s intercepting, disclosing or scanning of her emails,’' according to the suit.

Marquis’s attorney, John Zavez in Boston, did not respond to calls or an email for comment. Marquis is looking for $100 per day for each day of violation, or $1,000 in damages - whichever is higher - as well as attorney fees and profits Google made on its actions in question.

A Google spokesman stated in an email, “We’re not going to comment on the ongoing litigation. But to be clear, Gmail has from the beginning used automated scanning technology to show our users relevant advertisements that help to keep our services free.”

Google, based in Mountain View, California, launched the Gmail program in 2004 as an invitation-only service, then opened it up to the general public three years later.

T. Barton Carter, a professor of communication and law at Boston University, said that Massachusetts is in the minority of states in requiring that all parties consent to having their communications recorded.

He also stated that the Marquis’ case can illustrate how state laws sometimes don’t necessarily reflect current technologies.

“Privacy has always been a huge and growing issue in terms of new technologies,’' said Carter. “They write the law for technology as it exists when they write the law. Five years later, there may be very little in common.”