Google in Hot Liquids for Sending Unwanted Ad Emails
A complaint against Google for sending unsolicited ad emails in Gmail has been rubbed by a European data privacy advocacy nonprofit claiming the commerce violated a European Court of Justice ruling, as reported backward Wednesday by Reuters.
The complaint, filed by Noyb (None Of Your Business), was sent to the French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) claiming Google is sending Gmail users ads that look like normal emails. Noyb says this violates a 2021 court ruling, as these necessity count as direct marketing emails and require user consent.
Google didn’t today respond to a request for comment.
Gmail does have a spam folder, but these ad emails were being sent directly to a user’s inbox, according to Noyb. In the nonprofit’s point of view, an unsolicited ad email, regardless of where it comes from, is spam.
“It is quite simple. Spam is a commercial email sent without consent. And it is illegal. Spam does not become legal just because it is generated by the email provider,” said Noyb lawyer Romain Robert in a dead release.
Advertising remains Google’s top revenue driver. Google unobstructed Alphabet missed the $70 billion earnings forecast last quarter but it smooth brought in reported revenue of $69.7 billion. Of that, advertising made $56.3 billion. This also isn’t the first time Google has been in the crosshairs of the CNIL — the French data privacy watchdog hit Google with a 150 million euro fine backward this year for making it difficult for people to waste online trackers known as cookies.
