What's with the legal email from gmail?

[cousinlucky]

I got an email from gmail about a class action suit that they lost and I
guess the court ordered them to notify their subscribers!!

Can anyone explain what this is all about to me, please??? Thanks!!

[rokytnji]

I got an email from gmail about a class action suit that they lost and I
guess the court ordered them to notify their subscribers!!

Can anyone explain what this is all about to me, please??? Thanks!!

What? This one Cuz?

Google rarely contacts Gmail users via email, but we are making an exception to let you know that we've reached a settlement in a lawsuit regarding Google Buzz (Google Buzz), a service we launched within Gmail in February of this year.

Shortly after its launch, we heard from a number of people who were concerned about privacy. In addition, we were sued by a group of Buzz users and recently reached a settlement in this case.

The settlement acknowledges that we quickly changed the service to address users' concerns. In addition, Google has committed $8.5 million to an independent fund, most of which will support organizations promoting privacy education and policy on the web. We will also do more to educate people about privacy controls specific to Buzz. The more people know about privacy online, the better their online experience will be.

Just to be clear, this is not a settlement in which people who use Gmail can file to receive compensation. Everyone in the U.S. who uses Gmail is included in the settlement, unless you personally decide to opt out before December 6, 2010. The Court will consider final approval of the agreement on January 31, 2011. This email is a summary of the settlement, and more detailed information and instructions approved by the court, including instructions about how to opt out, object, or comment, are available at Google Buzz User Privacy Litigation Class Action Settlement Website.

The link is in the bottom of the letter.

[MikeTbob]

I got one too. You are about to receive a settlement payment from Google but at 8.5 Million divided by how many Bazillion Gmail users....you might get a few pennies.

[sgosnell]

Google has committed $8.5 million to an independent fund, most of which will support organizations promoting privacy education and policy on the web.

It doesn't say it's going to pay that money to gmail users, it's going to use it for education. You aren't getting any money unless you're one of the organizations "promoting privacy education and policy on the web". I'm not one of them, and I doubt anyone else in this thread is, either.

[cousinlucky]

I'm sorry but I still do not understand what google did to get sued!!

It also seems like google set aside some money for the people that sued them
but they do not show what changes losing the suit were going to be implemented!

[MikeTbob]

Some sort of privacy issues with Google "Buzz".
From the above link embedded in the email.

The Plaintiffs allege that Google automatically enrolled Gmail users in Buzz, and that Buzz publicly exposed data, including users’ most frequent Gmail contacts, without enough user consent.

[sgosnell]

Buzz was a poor idea, poorly implemented. It was supposed to be sort of a facebook/twitter sort of thing, but it never took off. Few people used it, although every gmail user was enrolled in it automatically. Apparently every gmail user had access to every other user's contacts, which was a major privacy concern.

[cousinlucky]

Is that where the gmail spam came from???

[sgosnell]

Which gmail spam? I seldom see any spam. It all goes straight to the spam folder, gmail has excellent spam detection built in. Once in a great while something gets sent to the spam folder that shouldn't be, but it's fewer than one per month, more like once every 6 months or so. Very little slips through to my inbox. I get spam, because I have a couple of spamtrap accounts which I use to register on websites, etc, and I have those forwarded to my main account. It almost all gets caught in the spam filter, though, and I only see the occasional spam message, very seldom.

[MikeTbob]

Is that where the gmail spam came from???

If you are referring to the Email from Gmail, that is not spam. That's called a notification and was probably required by law.