Close Gmail account, Google ordered
p2pnet news view | Freedom:- In an enormous screw-up, the Rocky Mountain Bank in Wilson, Wyoming, sent highly private and confidential information on 1,300 customers to a Google mail address.
Although the Gmail user hasn’t been accused of doing anything wrong, a federal judge has ordered Google to deactivate the account, says MediaPost.
“The order, issued Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge James Ware in the northern district of California, also requires Google to disclose the Gmail account holder’s identity and contact information,” says the story, going on:
“On Aug. 12, the bank mistakenly sent names, addresses, social security numbers and loan information of more than 1,300 customers to a Gmail address. When the bank realized the problem, it sent a message to that same address asking the recipient to contact the bank and destroy the file without opening it. No one responded, so the bank contacted Google to ask for information about the account holder.”
The bank tried to demand that Google disclose information about the user and deactivate the account secret, but US district court judge Ronald Whyte, “denied that request” and, “Earlier this week, the case was transferred to Ware from Whyte,” says MediaPost.
“It’s outrageous that the bank asked for this, and it’s outrageous that the court granted it,” the story has John Morris, general counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology, declaring.
“What right does the bank have and go suspend the email account of a completely innocent person?”
Says the bank’s online blurb:
“We believe that trust is vital. It is earned through promises kept and confidences maintained.”
MediaPost – Judge Orders Google To Deactivate User’s Gmail Account, September 25, 2009
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September 26th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
” We believe that trust is vital. It is earned through promises kept and confidences maintained.”
So, in order to preserve that ‘trust’ we are entitled to skip due process and do anything
else we want, to keep our fuckup secret, in order to preserve that ‘trust’ .
Why not?
It’s the Corporate way.
Corporations have VERY unique way of defining ‘trust’.
September 26th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
I’m going to give an opinion here that I think may be unpopular, but I’m thinking about balancing the needs of the 1,300 customers with the 1 gmail account holder. I think that *after a court decision* and only then, google could be asked to ‘hack’ into that account and remove that one email. There’s no reason for that account to be deactivated; it wouldn’t help anything. Furthermore, I think the bank should be made to pay a fine of not less than $13,000 (ten bucks per victim) to the account holder who had to have their account breached. This solution sucks in many ways but it’s the best compromise for all involved, and the only one to really lose is the bank that screwed up in the first place.
September 26th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Actually, what I would like to know is how come the bank didnt encrypt the data.
Who the hell would carry around the highly confidential unencrypted helicopter plans for the presidents helicopter on an unencrypted laptop
Oh sorry, wrong story.
Don’t you yanks have privacy laws in that country?
Actually, I’ll put it another way.
To Rocky Mountain Bank in Wilson,
Wyoming
Dear Bank Manager
When mummy and daddy get home, could you please let them know that they are idiots for letting you run the bank for them whilst they were away.
Thank-you
Signed PGP Privacy.
September 26th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
I just found out that I cannot access my gmail account due to the following message:
“Google Accounts: I’m getting a message that says ‘Sorry, your account has been disabled.’
If you’ve been redirected to this page from the sign in page, it means that access to your Google Account has been disabled.
In most cases, accounts are disabled because of a perceived violation of either the Google Terms of Service or product-specific Terms of Service.
Google reserves the right to:
* Suspend a Google Account from using a particular product or the entire Google Accounts system if the Terms of Service or product-specific policies are violated.
* Terminate your account at any time, for any reason, with or without notice.
If your Google Account has been disabled, please review the relevant Terms of Service before attempting to create another account. For guidelines on a specific Google product, please visit the product homepage for a link to its Terms of Service.
If you believe your account was disabled in error, contact us.”
I’ve never had any problems with any email accounts ever before but suddenly I’m unable to access my gmail acct. I used this gmail acct only for friends and family. I’ve never received any spam at this email address as I’ve never given it out to anyone except future shop and Capital One for updates to my credit card balances.
I don’t know what terms and conditions I could possibly have violated and am more than a little pissed at not having access to my gmail acct. I clicked on the “contact us” and asked them why they disabled my email acct and if they could please re-enable it. After I clicked on the submit button, I got a message that they take all comments seriously and that I won’t likely receive a reply to the 2nd email address I left for them but they appreciate customer’s feedback.
How Lovely!! It appears that my gmail account won’t be re-activated any time soon – likely never. On the Your account has been disabled page, they advise customers that they can set up a new gmail acct but to read their terms and conditions first to prevent any new accts being disabled. However this advice is meaningless without knowing why my gmail account was disabled in the first place.
Has this ever happened to anyone else here? Is there a way to get someone’s attention at Google to get my gmail account re-activated within a reasonable time – say a week? This is a tremendous inconvenience for me. Google should give customers some kind of warning if they believe a customer is violating a term or condition of some sort before disabling their accounts.
September 26th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
The problem is not only the message with the information stored on a single gmail acocunt., Remember that every single pice of information that passes thru gmail servers is stored permanently in google’s servers.
September 27th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
Banks suck. If you fuck up and make a mistake, you get hit with lots of fees. If they fuck up and credit your account and you don’t report it, they’ll charge you fees, and call the police! Especially big mega-monster banks (sorry Clark Howard, I couldn’t resist)!
My bank: Sealy savings and loan. No fees, no tellers, no ATMS. Isn’t freedom wonderful?
September 28th, 2009 at 11:57 am
Did the gmail account holder have an account with the bank in Wyoming? What state (or country for that matter) does the owner of the gmail account live in, and why isn’t that state/country backing their citizen’s privacy rights?
And, why are the banks being treated as superior to citizens in the first place? This is a free-market economy and a capitalist democracy; “Rocky Mountain Bank” in Wyoming should be held exclusively and unanimously responsible for this. If a restaurant, salon/barber, antique shop or any other business made a mistake with their customer’s hard earned money as this bank has, they would lose a sizable portion of their client-base. Instead, the bank (as an entity) is treated with compassionate exempt from the basic fundamentals that our economy and governing body are based upon.
I never understood the need for banks when I was a child (if you can’t afford it, you can’t buy it), and still only see them as a convenience for those who cannot manage their liquid finances (I’m absolutely terrible with money). I’m 26 years old, registered to vote and I pay my fair share of taxes. All of my free time is devoted (frustratingly, I might add) to trying educate myself on the matters that mean something to me. The idea that rulings such as these will be used as precedence in future cases leaves me nauseous, literally.
September 30th, 2009 at 10:06 am
So, say a bank erroneously sent me a batch of account information by U.S. Mail, and let’s say I threw it in the trash because it looked like junk mail (since I don’t have an account with the Rocky Mountain Bank), the court says they may suspend all mail deliveries to me from the USPS. This is the exact pre-Internet analogy. Freakin’ amazing how corporate and judicial America always punishes the private citizen.