Wiretapping Suits Against Google May Continue, Judges Rule

Accused of scanning users' e-mails to target advertising

Two federal judges have allowed separate wiretapping cases against Google to proceed.

One of those cases concerns Google's automated scanning of Gmail messages to provide advertising based on email contents. On June 13, Google filed a motion in federal court to dismiss the lawsuit, which accused the company of illegally scanning Gmail users' emails, as well as any emails they received from non-Gmail users. The suit also alleges that Google illegally scanned emails for users of Internet service providers who used a self-branded version of Gmail, as well as for Google Apps for Education users, who can opt into the content-based scanning of emails.