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Judge Orders Deleted Emails Turned Over

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the that-is-a-lot-of-mash-letters dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "In a lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission, a subpoena sent to Google orders the turnover of the complete contents of a Gmail account, including deleted e-mail messages. The Judge has granted the subpoena and orders that all e-mail messages, including deleted messages, be divulged. Google's privacy policy says deleted e-mail messages 'may remain in our offline backup systems' in perpetuity. It does not guarantee that backups are ever deleted. So much for the Delete Forever button."

7 of 600 comments (clear)

  1. Re:That's just like... by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 5, Funny

    BadAnalogyGuy, is that you?

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    This guy's the limit!
  2. With apologies to Douglas Adams by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Funny
    "Doing No Evil - a HOWTO Guide, presented in Socratic Dialogue form, courtesy of Zaphod Beeblebrox"

    Google: The gmail documents may remain present in our offline backup system.
    IRS: I eventually had to go down to the cellar...
    Google: That's the offline backup system's machine room.
    IRS: ... with a torch.
    Google: Ah, the lights had probably gone.
    IRS: So had the stairs.
    Google: But you found the tape, didn't you?
    IRS: Yes. It was backed up on paper tape stored in the bottom of a locked drawer beneath a PC04/PC05 tape reader with a dot-matrix printed sign on the door saying 'ACHTUNG! ALLES LOOKENSPEEPERS.' Ever thought of going into search technology?

  3. Re:Hate to say 'I told you so', but... by IDontAgreeWithYou · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah, I mean you wouldn't want the following email message to get out into the public

    to: MOM
    from: TripMasterMonkey
    Subject: Second Post :(


    Mom, I only got second post on the slashdot story about Gmail. Well, at least I got +5 interesting for mentioning 1984. If you need me, I'll be in the basement. A new story is coming out in 5 minutes and I have to do some serious copying and pasting and then mention privacy concerns. See you upstairs later tonight for dinner.

    Love, Your son TMM ^_^
    --
    Finding other idiots on /. that agree with your opinion doesn't make it any less stupid.
  4. The moral by TheCarlMau · · Score: 3, Funny

    The moral of this story is to never write down anything you don't want copied or seen by other eyes. I mean, look at the ancient Egyptians. We are reading their words today and they are hidden in booby-trapped tombs!

  5. Re:Hate to say 'I told you so', but... by deadlinegrunt · · Score: 4, Funny

    I would think that they have Google Backup. Beta of course...And only employees can be invited.

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    BSD is designed. Linux is grown. C++ libs
  6. Finally, a use for spam! by backwardMechanic · · Score: 3, Funny

    There's now more spam than legitamate email in the world, right? And we're all using spam filters, yes? Why not forward all your spam to a gmail account. If enough of us do it, google will see such a drop in SNR that there won't be any point storing all those old emails. What's that you say? Still not enough data to fill the mighty google? Set your random number generator to stun...

  7. Re:email longevity & PGP by das_cookie · · Score: 3, Funny
    If that is still too insecure for you, meet the recipient in the middle of the park for a strolling conversation; and don't forget the white noise generator.

    I prefer the Cone of Silence to secure my communications.

    --

    You! Yes, YOU! Out of the gene pool!