Judge orders man's GMail "deactivated" after bank sends him unsolicited e-mail

[Ana Ng]

This is a really, really scary precedent. I personally use GMail to archive and store a ton of information (personal and professional) that I couldn't keep elsewhere. Total bullsh*t.

The judicial system has spoken in the case of the spreadsheet full of personal data accidentally e-mailed to a random Gmail user by an employee of Rocky Mountain Bank. Google must reveal the account holder's identity, and the account has been deactivated.

I really hope this doesn't stand. (Link)

[Plurabelle]

I agree this is a completely disturbing precedent.

Google should be able to remove the offending email from his account without much trouble. Perhaps a case of judicial unfamiliarity with how these things work? After all if the man had downloaded the spreadsheet he'd need to surrender his computer, etc., beyond just losing his Gmail account.

I wonder if they nuked any google docs, etc, he might have as well (he'd lose anything associated with his google username, no)? If I were him I'd want to hold RMB (or someone, whomever is appropriate as the case unfolds) responsible for any demonstrable loss suffered while not having access to the account.

While webmail is not the place to be securing really sensitive information, I'd be up a creek with automatic bill pays, etc., needing to be reset if I suddenly lost access to Gmail. I think Google is smart enough to know that's not something they want their users want to consider a possibility (due to being an accidential recipient, at least.


And seriously no sympathy for the idiots sending the wrong information to the wrong people. Typos happen but in what realistic scenario would a sensitive spreadsheet be going to a gmail.com address in the first place?

There is a lawyer in Chicago with the same first/last name as me (which is very common, but I knew someone at Google when they first launched Gmail, so I was able to snag plurabelle.lastname@gmail.com); her gmail address is plurabelle.M.lastname@gmail.com.

She gets sloppy when trying to back up her work documents and sends me all kinds of highly sensitive legal information. This has been going on for years. I always delete what she sends me (if it's related to her work--some of her more hilarious personal emails are fair game, after all I did ask her 40 or 50 times to stop confusing my email with hers and to tell her family to do the same), but the first time it happened I had no idea what was going on and skimmed a couple of docs before realizing what was up. If I wanted to I could easily forward the emails to the parties named in the documents--I wouldn't but have considered sending them onto her law firm (chalk it up to not wanting to get involved).

Having a common name, I don't mind when I get an email from someone who is looking for their relative with my same first/last name combo and gets confused--because it happens, and after I politely explain they leave me alone. Not so with this woman.