In an order issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose allowed plaintiffs to move forward with claims that Google’s practice of automatically scanning emails to target advertisements violates the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act and a handful of state privacy laws.
“The statutory scheme suggests that Congress did not intend to allow electronic communication service providers unlimited leeway to engage in any interception that would benefit their business models, as Google contends,” Koh wrote in a 43-page order.
