Rocky Mountain Bank in Wyoming is suing Google for not wanting to disclose the identity of one Gmail user who accidentally received an email erroneously sent out by the bank’s employee. The email has an attachment containing confidential information of around 1,325 individual and business customers of the bank including names, addresses, tax identification and social security numbers.The bank employee who committed the mistake tried to recall to email but of course it was a futile attempt since the email was already sent. So the employee sent another email, this time really meant for the Gmail user asking him or her to delete the email without reading it. But up until now, there was no reply from the Gmail user.
The Bank then decided to sue Google and demanded that the identity of the Gmail user be disclosed to them. But of course Google refused to take action without a court order and even so representatives from Google said that even with a proper court order, they will still not give the information to the Bank unless they got a permission from the Gmail user.
The issue is still hanging in the balance. And the Bank fearing that the buzz would spread to their other customers and create panic, asked the court to seal the case pending court orders that will force Google to disclose the information. But the court denied the Bank’s motion.
Will the court imposed its legal authority and force Google to breach its Gmail TOS and disclose the user’s information? I don’t think so because that will result in another case that can be filed by the Gmail user.
Maybe what the Bank should do now is hope that the Gmail user would not take advantage of the information that was accidentally sent to him.
