Media

Google announced that it is going to start data mining all of its sites together, including Gmail, Google +, and other means of collecting personal information, aggregating that data to target ads to Google users.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-tracks-consumers-across-products-users-cant-opt-out/2012/01/24/gIQArgJHOQ_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboNE_b  In other words, Google is going to look at the contents of your private communications to see what it can sell to you.  There is no opt-out.

I have no real attachment to Google, and while I have to have a gmail account because of my phone, it’s never used.  The search engine is helpful, but then again, you have options like https://ssl.scroogle.org/ (temporarily down after it got widespread coverage based on this privacy change) that will give you Google’s results without giving Google any personal or traceable information. 

Now, Google is a private company, and it can condition the use of its services on whatever it likes.  However, to make this change with no ability to opt out not only shows a rather domineering bent, it poses real challenges for doctors, lawyers, accountants, and even ministers, among others. 

Legally, evidentiary privileges exist when a person tells a trusted professional something in confidence.  In general terms, the conversation has to be only between the person and the professional, or it is not protected.  Again, generally, once a confidential communication is disclosed to a third party, it cannot be considered privileged.

So how does that hurt professionals advising clients?  

Well, if privilege is interpreted in the strictest sense, a lawyer can no longer send a communication to, or accept one from, a gmail account if he hopes to maintain the attorney-client privilege, because google is not simply transmitting the email, it is reading it.  Such emails between lawyer and client might even be discoverable, since the privilege would not attach.   So too with a doctor or psychiatrist, anything to or from a gmail account is not privileged in court.  Google’s new practice also raises significant HIPAA concerns about the privacy of medical records.  A doctor’s office can’t email you test results to or from gmail.  Likewise, an email to your pastor discussing a private spiritual matter cannot be excluded from court, and a host of other private communications become, in essence, public.

Now, there are some reacting with massive paranoia about Google’s policy, but that is overblown.  If you don’t use Google, you can maintain your privacy.  The real problem for professionals is that clients do use Google, and it can have massive unforeseen negative consequences when dealing with private communications.