Via Reuters
-----
Surfboards lean against a wall at the Google office in Santa Monica, California, October 11, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Lucy Nicholson
(Reuters) - Google
Inc updated its terms of service on Monday, informing users that their
incoming and outgoing emails are automatically analyzed by software to create targeted ads.
The revisions more explicitly spell out the manner in which Google software
scans users' emails, both when messages are stored on Google's servers
and when they are in transit, a controversial practice that has been at
the heart of litigation.
Last
month, a U.S. judge decided not to combine several lawsuits that
accused Google of violating the privacy rights of hundreds of millions
of email users into a single class action.
Users of Google's Gmail email service
have accused the company of violating federal and state privacy and
wiretapping laws by scanning their messages so it could compile secret
profiles and target advertising. Google has argued that users implicitly consented to its activity, recognizing it as part of the email delivery process.
Google spokesman Matt Kallman said in a statement that the changes "will give people even greater clarity and are based on feedback we've received over the last few months."
Google's
updated terms of service added a paragraph stating that "our 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.
(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Bernard Orr)