A brief guide to many of the newer and upcoming laws regarding privacy in the United States.

If Google builds a database of keywords associated with email addresses, the potential for abuse is staggering. Google could grow a database that spits out the email addresses of those who used those keywords. How about words such as "box cutters" in the same email as "airline schedules"? Can you think of anyone who might be interested in obtaining a list of email addresses for that particular combination? Or how about "mp3" with "download"? Since the RIAA has sent subpoenas to Internet service providers and universities in an effort to identify copyright abusers, why should we expect Gmail to be off-limits?

Intelligence agencies would love to play with this information. Diagrams that show social networks of people who are inclined toward certain thoughts could be generated. This is one form of "data mining," which is very lucrative now for high-tech firms, such as Google, that contract with federal agencies. Email addresses tied to keywords would be perfect for this. The fact that Google offers so much storage turns Gmail into something that is uniquely dangerous and creepy.

Google's plans to run targeted advertising with the mail that you see through its new Gmail service represents a potential break for government agencies that want to use autobots to monitor the contents of electronic communications travelling across networks. Even though the configuration of the Gmail service minimises the intrusion into privacy, it represents a disturbing conceptual paradigm - the idea that computer analysis of communications is not a search. This is a dangerous legal precedent which both law enforcement and intelligence agencies will undoubtedly seize upon and extend, to the detriment of our privacy.

First, Google has proposed scanning the text of all incoming emails for ad placement. The scanning of confidential email violates the implicit trust of an email service provider. Further, the unlimited period for data retention poses unnecessary risks of misuse. Second, Google's overall data retention and correlation policies are problematic in their lack of clarity and broad scope. Google has not set specific, finite limits on how long it will retain user account, email, and transactional data. And Google has not set clear written policies about its data sharing between business units. Third, the Gmail system sets potentially dangerous precedents and establishes reduced expectations of privacy in email communications. These precedents may be adopted by other companies and governments and may persist long after Google is gone. We urge you to suspend the Gmail service until the privacy issues are adequately addressed.

I'm just as worried about corporate America's increasingly rapid erosion of any remaining spheres of privacy we might have left, as I am worried about John Ashcroft's goon squad snooping around in my Inbox... and this from a self-described radical who advocates overthrow of the U.S. government!

So, again, I advocate resisting this Google service by all means available. Here are some suggestions:

1. ban GMail from sending to your account;
2. contact everyone you know who uses it and tell them you're not going to accept email that will be commercialized by Google, nor will you send to an account that will permit commercialization of private email;
3. contact Google and tell them their plans for GMail go too far;

Google's cookie is an index for all your searches until 2038, and sits alongside an Orkut cookie that tells Google - or friendly law enforcement officials or marketeers - exactly who you are. Google's Gmail will complete the picture, indexing private electronic discourse under the main Google search cookie.

California law requires all-party consent and that those who send email to the Gmail.com domain have not given express permission for the content of their correspondence to be reviewed for keywords and subsequent ad placement. If Google is found to be in violation of California's Penal Code 631, Gmail users could face possible civil and criminal penalties, the letter states.

1. While there has been over-reaction to GMail, there are some real issues here to be worried about.
2. Other webmail providers are doing, or will be doing the same things, meaning these issues apply to all of them, including MSN, Yahoo and others.
3. One key risk is that because GMail gets your consent to be more than an e-mail delivery service -- offering searching, storage and shopping -- your mail there may not get the legal protection the ECPA gives you on E-mail.
4. The storage of e-mail on 3rd party servers for more than 180 days almost certainly causes the loss of those privileges.
5. This in turn creates a danger that we may redefine whether e-mail has the "reasonable expectation of privacy" needed for 4th amendment protection.
6. Correlation of search and mail has real risks.
7. Google and others should architect to encrypt your mail.
8. Even the irrational fears over the spooky aspect of advertising being associated with e-mail creates problems that must be addressed.