CNET: Does Gmail breach wiretap laws?

A group that recently sought to link Google's new Gmail service with the Federal Bureau of Investigations sent a letter to the California Attorney General alleging that the new free email service "violates California's wiretapping laws, subjecting both Google and Gmail users to criminal and civil penalties." A lawyer interviewed by CNET called the notion that a machine reading email constitutes could be considered a wiretap simply "Luddite."

Joining the letter were the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and the World Privacy Forum. A spokesman for the Attorney General, without tittering, said that the office had received the letter and would consider it.