Are you using Gmail? Then expect no privacy

If you are one of 400m people using Google Gmail, you should not expect any privacy, it is concluded in a court report published by Consumer Watchdog.

Google's lawyers filed a motion last month to have a class action complaint dismissed, referencing a 1979 ruling holding that people who turn over information to third parties shouldn't expect that information to remain private.

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 today cannot be surprised if their communications are processed by the recipient’s ECS provider in the course of delivery.

- A person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over to third parties - Google's brief reads.

“Google has finally admitted they don’t respect privacy,” said John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project director, in a news release. “People should take them at their word; if you care about your email correspondents’ privacy don’t use Gmail.”