The complainant is hoping that Edward Snowden would help him prevent Google from scanning users’ e-mails
Google is facing a lawsuit filed by a Russian politician alleging that the search engine giant violated his privacy. The complainant is hoping that Edward Snowden will help him on the case.
Anton Burkov, chairman of the Monarchist Party in Russian and former mayoral candidate at Yekaterinburg filed a complaint against Google because the company is reading his personal e-mails. He filed his lawsuit at the Moscow court, which will start hearing his allegations on February 16.
In an interview with the Russian News Agency, Burkov emphasized that Google has no right to read his letters. According to him, he accidentally discovered that the search engine giant has access to his correspondences.
“I found it quite by accident, on the right side of my letters; I saw an advertisement and realized that it contains the data of my letters. This means Google’s robots are programmed to collect information about users and provide contextual advertising,”
Google admits scanning user’s emails
The search engine giant has been transparent that it is collecting information from users of its services for targeted advertising.
Google previously announced, “Our automated systems analyze your content (including emails) to provide you personally relevant product features, such as customized search results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection. This analysis occurs as the content is sent, received, and when it is stored.”
According to Burkov, he did not read Google’s user agreement when he accepted it. He said, “Of course, I signed without reading the user agreement.
Russia’s constitution protects the right to privacy of correspondence
Burkov emphasized that Russia’s constitution establishes the right to privacy of correspondence. According to him, the user agreement of Google is against the law. He said, he filed the complaint to stop the search engine giant’s practice. “I’ve come to the court to stop this,” said Burkov.
He added that the case has many technical subtleties. Fe does not expect the trial to be easy, and he hoping that Snowden would join and help him in his lawsuit against Google.
According to him, Snowden is struggling to prevent the United States from reading our correspondence. He pointed out the Google has no right to do the same thing. “Maybe Snowden would like to join me and help out because he is a good specialist in all of these technologies,” said Burkov.
A court representative told the Russian News Agency that Burkov is requesting the court to prohibit Google from reading his personal e-mails. He is also seeking moral damages in the amount of 50,000 rubles or $766.
