Google Class Action Settlement Would Reduce Email-Scanning

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A proposed Gmail class action settlement would provide users of Google’s email service with no damages but would preserve their right to bring their own claim later.

Parties to the Google class action lawsuit submitted a proposed settlement to the court for approval this week. The suit challenges the way Google allegedly scans users’ emails, both incoming and outgoing, and uses the information gleaned for marketing purposes.

Under the terms of the Gmail settlement, Google is offering to cease “any processing of email content – including the content of emails exchanged with non-Gmail accountholders – that it applies prior to the point when a Gmail user can retrieve the email in his or her mailbox, and that is used for the distinct purpose of advertising and creating advertising user models.”

Google also agrees not to use any other remaining pre-inbox processing, like spam filtering, for advertising purposes until after the email becomes available in the user’s inbox.

The parties note that the Gmail settlement provides proposed Class Members with injunctive relief only, not monetary relief. Class Members would not receive any payouts, the Gmail settlement also doesn’t require them to release any claim for monetary damages. So Class Members would retain the right to bring their own claims against Google in the future.

Named plaintiffs Daniel Matera and Susan Rashkis would each receive an incentive award of $2,000. The Gmail settlement also provides for attorneys’ fees for plaintiffs’ counsel and for payment of administrative costs to cover notification of Class Members.

Deliberation over the Gmail settlement is scheduled for a court hearing in March of next year.

Matera filed this Google privacy rights class action lawsuit back in September 2015. Although Matera hadn’t used a Gmail account of his own, he took issue with the way Google processes emails he sends to and receives from Gmail accounts. He says Google intercepts and catalogs these emails and stores copies of them for an indefinite amount of time, all in the interest of creating target marketing.

Google allegedly updated its privacy policy in December 2014 to inform its own users of its data-collecting practices. However, Matera claimed he never got notice of the new policy and never had a chance to accept or reject it.

Matera said that by essentially eavesdropping on parties to Gmail conversations, Google was violating the California Invasion of Privacy Act and the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

The Gmail class action lawsuit hurdled Google’s motion to dismiss in September 2016, though not without losing a few of the claims originally pled. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh dismissed claims for injunctive relief, finding the plaintiffs were at no real risk for future injury.

The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Michael W. Sobol, Nicole D. Sugnet and Michael Levin-Gesundheit of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP, Hank Bates of Carney Bates & Pulliam PLLC, and Ray E. Gallo and Dominic R. Valerian of Gallo LLP.

The Google Gmail Privacy Rights Class Action Lawsuit is Daniel Matera, et al. v. Google Inc., Case No. 5:15-cv-04062, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On July 21, 2017, Google reportedly reached a revised $2.2 million email scanning settlement after a California federal judge rejected the original proposed class action settlement earlier this year.