Comments
JohnBarnes
10/7/2016 7:41:19 AM User Rank Platinum
Re: trending
mhhf1ve,
If I set up a hidden camera in your shower, and can't find a buyer for the pictures, has your privacy been violated?
Ariella
10/6/2016 8:41:54 PM User Rank Author
Re: trending
@mhhf1ve I think that companies tend to settle. Google is expected to offer a settlement over the charge that it used its Apps for Education to scan student emails for marketing purposes. See http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/08/19/settlement-likely-in-google-email-case.htm That also brings up the consideration people have to take into account of variations among states about data protection. That story refers to the California Wiretap law, which, apparently is extended to emails.
mhhf1ve
10/6/2016 8:28:12 PM User Rank Platinum
Re: trending
Nice link. Hadn't seen that lawsuit, and it seems relevant for any future email scanning suits against yahoo. Settling doesn't quite set a precedent, but it shows that yahoo might be able to buy its way out of some email missteps.
Ariella
10/6/2016 5:07:36 PM User Rank Author
Re: trending
@mhhf1ve Yahoo had been linked to email scanning for ads. Yahoo settled that class action lawsuite at the beginning of the year. See https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/01/14/yahoo-settles-class-action-suit-over-scanning-email-for-ad-targeting/ It says;
Yahoo has settled a class action lawsuit over automatically scanning email sent by non-Yahoo Mail customers – including attachments – without consent, in order to deliver targeted ads to Mail users.
The upshot: Yahoo's going to keep scanning email, but it's tweaking the timing so that it scans only after the email has reached a user's inbox.
mhhf1ve
10/6/2016 5:04:08 PM User Rank Platinum
Re: trending
Scanning employee email has far fewer restrictions because employees do not (or should not) have an expectation of privacy while using work email. Since no one reads terms of service agreements-- Yahoo might not have done anything legally wrong either if their TOS has similar clauses of allowing filtering and other algorithmic targeting. (They must if email ads are targeted at all?)
Ariella
10/6/2016 3:01:54 PM User Rank Author
![](http://img.lightreading.com/images/spacer.gif)
Re: trending
@mhhf1ve excellent question. Perhaps not, though it seems that to act on the flags, at least some will have to be read by humans. Looking further into this, I came across a company that offers an email filter service to try to identify employees that may be disgruntled enough to engineer a data leak. It's called Scout, In a Fortune article, the company founder explained how it complies with US law:
He stresses that only a tiny fraction of emails are ever read, and most of those are reviewed only by the outside clinician—never coming to the attention of co-workers or supervisors. From a legal standpoint, Weber explains, in the U.S. a company needs "informed consent" to look at employees' emails. "If you have a policy that informs your employees that it's not their computer, it's not their data, it's subject to search, there's no expectation of privacy—you're covered," he says. (Most large U.S. companies already have such policies in place.)
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mhhf1ve
10/6/2016 2:45:05 PM User Rank Platinum
Re: trending
That's what I mean.. if an algorithm scans your email and doesn't find what it's looking for... has your privacy been violated?
Ariella
10/6/2016 2:24:08 PM User Rank Author
Re: trending
@mhhf1ve you mean if it's not seen by human eyes, privacy is maintained? Interesting point, though I'd think that any emails that were flagged by the algorithm must have been passed on to human readers in this instance. According to the article, though, all data transfers are scanned in a machine way to prevent child pornography from getting through the channels.
mhhf1ve
10/6/2016 2:07:19 PM User Rank Platinum
Re: trending
Well, stepping back a bit... is an algorithm capable of violating your privacy? Sure, if people use the algorithms to do other things, but if it's just scanning for keywords or patterns... I think it's tricky to say it's violating your privacy. I suppose it depends on the keywords or patterns -- or the purpose of the scanning to begin with.
Ariella
10/6/2016 2:02:27 PM User Rank Author
Re: trending
@mhhf1ve there's always that problem: do you say that the loss of privacy is justified because the filtering was meant for a good end, or do you say that privacy is an absolute right, and compromises of this sort are no better than other warrantless searches? I understand both sides of the argument.
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