<p>Students who use Google's Apps for Education are accusing the company of violating the Wiretap Act, which prohibits the interception of wire, oral or electronic communications. A group of nine plaintiffs hopes to turn the case into a class action suit.</p><p>Institutions of higher education and K-12 schools throughout the world use Apps for Education for free online applications such as email, calendar, word processing, spreadsheet and collaborative document sharing.</p><p>Google admitted to Education Week that it automatically "scans and indexes" the email of Apps for Education users even though ads are off by default, but that its automated processes can't actually be turned off even for users who choose not to receive ads.</p><p>The suit maintains that Google scanned millions of students' email messages, allegedly building "surreptitious" profiles to target them with advertising. Since non-Gmail users who send emails to Gmail users never signed on to Google's terms of services, they can never have given "implied consent" to scan their email.</p><p><a href="http://socialtimes.com/student-lawsuit-alleges-google-data-mines-gmail-users-violates-anti-wiretapping-law_b145238">Keep reading...</a></p>