--Judge Orders Google to Deactivate Account
(September 24 & 28, 2009)
A US District Court Judge in California has ordered Google to deactivate
the Gmail account of a user who was accidentally sent confidential bank
information.  An employee of Wyoming-based Rocky Mountain Bank sent the
data to the account in error; the data include names, Social Security
Numbers (SSNs) and loan information of more than 1,300 bank customers.
Upon recognizing the mistake, the bank sent another email to the same
address, requesting that the recipient destroy the previous email and
contact Rocky Mountain Bank.  After receiving no reply, the bank asked
Google for information about the account holder.  Google said that it
would not surrender any information without a court order.  The judge's
order is controversial because it appears to violate the account
holder's First Amendment rights.  Additionally, deactivating an
individual's Gmail account could have far-reaching effects.
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=114264
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/28/google_rocky_mountain_bank_suit_rollls_on/
[Editor's Note (Northcutt): I had to read this, drink a cup of hot tea,
and read it again to comprehend how significant this case is. Please
take the time to read the story. There are a couple of issues here. One
is that the legal system follows technology by some number of years.
Looking backward five years, you can sort of see Judge Ware's point of
view, "It is just an email account, the person can get another one."
Looking forward two or three years, in the words of Charlene Li, "In the
future, two pieces of information will identify you, your email address
and your mobile phone number". Bottom line, Judge Ware made a bad call.]