Man Jailed for Gmail Invite to Ex-Girlfriend

[UsernameIssues]

In what one expert on Internet privacy calls "a worst-case scenario," a Massachusetts man was jailed for sending his ex-girlfriend (who had a restraining order against him) an email invitation to join Google+.

But Thomas Gagnon contends he didn't send it; Google did, without his knowledge or consent.


When his ex-girlfriend received the invitation, according to the Salem News, she went to the police, complaining Gagnon had violated the restraining order by sending her the email. Police agreed and arrested him, the News reported. He was jailed then released on $500 bail.

~~~

Attorney Bradley Shear of Bethesda, Md., an internationally recognized expert on Internet privacy, told ABC News it's entirely possible Gagnon is telling the truth -- that he did not intentionally or knowingly send the invitation. "If he didn't send it -- if Google sent it without his permission and he was jailed for it -- Google could be facing major liability," Shear said.

Google Invitation Sends Man to Jail - ABC News

 

[Solarstarshines]

Sounds like someone got caught with their hand in the cookie jar

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

It sounds plausible. Many websites will send automatic invitations from people's mailboxes. I got one once, ironically enough, from a website that claimed it was from an exgirlfriend of mine. She was completely unaware that the parenting website she had joined would snoop into her email list and do that.

 

[TVeblen]

Linkedin does the same thing. But they ask you if you want to share your address book. (Not me!) If you do then everyone on the list gets an invite to connect with you on Linkedin.

So if Google asks, and he clicks yes, and his ex is on the list, then I think technically/legally Google is off the hook.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...So if Google asks, and he clicks yes, and his ex is on the list, then I think technically/legally Google is off the hook.

The key word here is "if".

 

[TVeblen]

I agree! The whole practice stinks. I can't believe people click "yes".

 

[GEWB]

If history is any indicator, Google may be the cause. If the gentle readers recall, Google pulled a similar stunt a few years ago when they rolled out Buzz. That resulted in a lot of problems and law suits.

I got burned on that fiasco when my private GMail contact list was made publicly available to everyone on my list - not good when my boss could see email contacts with other companies.

Do a DuckDuckGo search with the words Google Buzz Legal and read some history.

After that happened I deleted all GMail emails, contacts, closed my GDocs and will never trust Google again. I still have an account so I can update my Android table only.

Regards,
GEWB

 

[Callender]

Related topic

Coming very soon. Anyone can email your gmail account if you're a Google+ user - even if they don't know your email address.

New Gmail feature allows any Google+ member to contact you; how to opt-out - National Technology | Examiner.com

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Yet another reason I won't use G-Mail (and avoid Google).

 

[lehnerus2000]

I was "spewing" when I had to create a Gmail account to complete one of my TAFE subjects (last semester).

 

[ThrashZone]

Coming very soon. Anyone can email your gmail account if you're a Google+ user - even if they don't know your email address.

New Gmail feature allows any Google+ member to contact you; how to opt-out - National Technology | Examiner.com

Thanks for the heads up,
I saw the Social section long ago and I removed it,
I always knew about where Google+ was going and never entered that option,
Gmail has always been less of a spam magnet than outlook.com or Hotmail or even Yahoo.com so I can't say anything bad about gmail other than Google+ is quite different,
Cheers.

 

[marsmimar]

Isn't Google+ yet another kind of social media site? One only has to look at Facebook to see how people thought their information was private (because they had their FB accounts set to private) but FB was allowing friends of friends of friends to access that private info*. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Google+ sent/sends out invites to people who are/were contacts.

*Or something along those lines. I don't belong to any social sites so I'm only repeating what I think others have said.

 

[ThrashZone]

Yes the settings for Google+ are as convoluted as Facebook's,
Most of the setting for even gmail are fairly convoluted as well but most email services are equally as weird as well,
Between Friends/ contacts and friends of friends.. it's pretty messed up and spam coming from all of the above who participate in Google+ and or Facebook and other social groups,
Social is not privacy orientated everything is open nothing is usually hidden except the settings to control it,
The best policy is to never enter it "Social"
The equivalent to being Antisocial
Cheers.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Once you start ...

Social is not privacy orientated everything is open nothing is usually hidden except the settings to control it,
The best policy is to never enter it "Social"
The equivalent to being Antisocial

"Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, ..."

 

[ThrashZone]

Nice mixture of Star Wars and the Borg

 

[Computer0304]

I do have a gmail account but I try to opt out of all the bad stuff.

 

[matts6887]

Sounds like someone got caught with their hand in the cookie jar

Ohhh yea!....gotta love it...lol. i would feel like this probably if i did something like that and i knew what i did was wrong but did it anyway: lol

 

[matts6887]

I do have a gmail account but I try to opt out of all the bad stuff.

yep. I do too. I dont even use gmail as my main email account as i have a email account with my isp that i use as my main one.

 

[Fantail]

What would robocop do? :shock:

 

[phillipduran]

My money is on it being Google's fault.

I just turned off my google+ account yesterday and OMG, google+ is like some mega digital octopus that has its hands in everything. Recommendations, friends of friends, friend suggestions, what your friends are doing, notify your friends, update on what your friends are doing, automatically email updates, send your friends updates. It's crazy how much stuff google+ does.

I can't believe they would jail the guy for an email. An email can be sent from any internet connected device anywhere at anytime. You can even spoof the senders name. Someone could get an old phone of his with his email accounts on it and send email's in his name from his account. Forget to sign off on a public computer and people could send emails using his account. Hackers. My account has been hacked before by someone from Turkey. Sent emails to everyone in my contact list.

This is a dumb as getting a letter in the mail addressed to him and throwing him in jail for it going to her house. There are too many ways for this to happen to consider it grounds for violation of a restraining order.

Seems like another case of the digital dumb from our justice system.