Google Sued For Scanning Emails Sent To Gmail Accounts

For years, it has been widely acknowledged that Google, Inc. ("Google") scans incoming and outgoing e-mails associated with individual Gmail accounts in order to deliver targeted advertising to Gmail account holders.  While Gmail subscribers may have consented to e-mail scanning when they signed up for Google's services, many non-subscribers that have sent e-mails to Gmail account holders never directly authorized Google to scan the contents of those communications.  Now, a new class action lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania by a non-Gmail subscriber raises the question of whether Google's practices, and potentially those of other online services and companies that review or monitor online communications of various kinds, violate various individual state laws that prohibit interception of electronic communications without the consent of all parties to a communication.