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When you use Google (Gmail) you signup to their terms of service. It states that incoming and outgoing emails are analysed by automated software. The article makes it seems like staff at Google are reading peoples emails or spying on its customers. They don't!

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Usually they don't. [1]

[1] http://gawker.com/5637234/gcreep-google-engineer-stalked-tee...

That case was very bad. It gets mentioned a lot. Is that because it happens all the time, but that's the only case that was reported? Or is it because it's very rare, and that's the only case there is to report?

(I doubt very much that Google has only had one employee who accesses user data inappropriately and I really hope they take severe action when they find it. I would really like to know the rates from similar large companies - FB, MS, etc.)

I'm not attacking Google in particular. It's just that the statement "Staff at [X] aren't reading peoples emails or spying on its customers" is simply logically false. Because sometimes they do it and we know it. Also, spying by the means of automatic analysis is still spying. (Also, I believe the reason it's done automatically is simply because it's more efficient, not ethics issues)

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