June 1, 2004 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — The California state Senate approved a bill last Thursday that places restrictions on email providers seeking to scan their customers’ messages for the purpose of advertising, according to a report in silicon.com.
Senator Liz Figueroa, the bill’s author, said the legislation, which targets Google’s (google.com) recently announced Gmail service, would guarantee that email communications remain private.
The news comes as Google seeks to fend off criticism of its proposed Gmail service, launched in April. Gmail would offer an unprecedented 1GB of storage. The criticism centers around privacy concerns raised as a result of Google’s plan to incorporate various elements of its search technology into the service, including a plan to search the content of email messages, delivering ads related to that content. Google said it would closely guard the content of email messages, however privacy concerns have persisted.
The new bill severely hampers Google’s ability to implement its targeted advertising model. Google said it remains neutral on the legislation, but plans to continue working with lawmakers.
