California Senate Approves Bill Curbing Gmail
The legislation gains approval after a key provision was altered.
The California State Senate has approved a bill putting strict curbs on email providers intending to scan customer messages for advertising and other purposes. The bill, authored by Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Fremont, was written in response to Google’s Gmail service.
The senator won Senate approval of SB 1822 by a vote of 24-8 after removing a key provision that would have mandated that email providers get the consent of anyone sending email to their subscribers before scanning their messages.
“We know that once the information genie is out of the bottle, it is impossible to put it back. My legislation guarantees that our most private communications will remain just that — private,” the senator said in a statement. Google could not be reached for comment.
The bill will now move to the State Assembly for consideration.
Gmail is still in beta testing. Google launched the service less than two months ago. A firestorm of controversy broke out almost immediately.
