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1 Google Sent Out A Press Release About The Gmail

Google launched its new email service Gmail in 2004 with the goal of making email significantly better than competitors by making it smarter, easier to use, and free. However, the press release did not mention that user emails would be scanned to select contextually relevant ads to display, which raised privacy concerns. While Google argued the scanning was done by computers without humans viewing emails, some felt users should have been informed of how their data would be used.

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Amit Pandey
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161 views1 page

1 Google Sent Out A Press Release About The Gmail

Google launched its new email service Gmail in 2004 with the goal of making email significantly better than competitors by making it smarter, easier to use, and free. However, the press release did not mention that user emails would be scanned to select contextually relevant ads to display, which raised privacy concerns. While Google argued the scanning was done by computers without humans viewing emails, some felt users should have been informed of how their data would be used.

Uploaded by

Amit Pandey
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Solved: 1 Google sent out a press release about the Gmail

1. Google sent out a press release about the Gmail service without mentioning the intention to
put ads in the e-mails or how those ads would be selected. Was that ethical? Explain why or
why not.
2. Sergey Brin offered the argument that all e-mail providers scan your e-mails for content to
ensure that it is yours and that it isn’t a spam e-mail. Does that argument justify the decision to
scan e-mails for content in order to place “contextually relevant” ads? Explain why or why not.
3. Does the fact that the scanning process is done by computer, with no people reading the e-
mails, make the act any less of an invasion of your privacy?
4. Could Google have launched Gmail in a way that would have avoided the media firestorm
over privacy? Explain your answer.

In spring 2004, with business booming and Google basking in the glow of its ever-growing
popularity, Larry [Page] and Sergey [Brin] prepared to dazzle Internet users with a different kind
of email. Building on the strong Google brand name, they called the new service “Gmail.” . . .
Larry and Sergey wanted to make a big splash with Gmail. There was no reason to provide the
service unless it was radically better than email services already offered by Microsoft, Yahoo,
AOL, and others. They built Gmail to be smarter, easier, cheaper, and superior. Otherwise
Google users wouldn’t be impressed, and its creators wouldn’t be living up to their own high
standards . . . [Larry and Sergey] had identified email problems that Google, with its immense
computing power, could address. For example, it was difficult, if not impossible, to find and
retrieve old emails when users needed them. America Online automatically deleted emails after
30 days to hold down systems costs. There was no easy way to store the mountain of emails
that an accumulative Internet user amassed without slowing personal computers or paying
Microsoft, Yahoo, or another firm to provide additional storage.

ANSWER
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