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Judge rejects Google's email-scanning settlement

Kim Hart, author of Cities

AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File

A federal judge in San Jose has rejected Google's proposed settlement with non-Gmail users who claim Google illegally scanned their emails to Gmail users to target them with advertising, Reuters reports.

In a decision released Wednesday night, District Judge Lucy Koh said the disclosure requirements were inadequate and the settlement did not include technical changes Google would make to comply with privacy laws.

Background: Google tentatively agreed to change the way it collects data from Gmail in December, agreeing to stop collecting advertising-specific data before an email is accessible in a user's inbox, according the The Verge. The voluntary settlement came after non-Gmail users, who haven't agreed to have their emails scanned under Google's Terms of Service, brought a class-action lawsuit against Google for violating privacy laws.

Yahoo settled a similar lawsuit last year and agreed to delay ad-scanning. Koh noted that Yahoo's settlement required more disclosures than Google's proposed settlement.

What's next: The issue is a growing one for companies who run ad-supported email services. The plaintiffs plan to push on with the litigation against Google.

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Scoop: Gina Haspel threatened to resign over plan to install Kash Patel as CIA deputy

CIA Director Gina Haspel. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

CIA Director Gina Haspel threatened to resign in early December after President Trump cooked up a hasty plan to install loyalist Kash Patel, a former aide to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), as her deputy, according to three senior administration officials with direct knowledge of the matter.

Why it matters: The revelation stunned national security officials and almost blew up the leadership of the world's most powerful spy agency. Only a series of coincidences — and last minute interventions from Vice President Mike Pence and White House counsel Pat Cipollone — stopped it.

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John Weaver, Lincoln Project co-founder, acknowledges “inappropriate” messages

John Weaver aboard John McCain's campaign plane in February 2000. Photo: Robert Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)

John Weaver, a veteran Republican operative who co-founded the Lincoln Project, declared in a statement to Axios on Friday that he sent “inappropriate,” sexually charged messages to multiple men.

  • “To the men I made uncomfortable through my messages that I viewed as consensual mutual conversations at the time: I am truly sorry. They were inappropriate and it was because of my failings that this discomfort was brought on you,” Weaver said.
  • “The truth is that I'm gay,” he added. “And that I have a wife and two kids who I love. My inability to reconcile those two truths has led to this agonizing place.”
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