A federal judge in Northern California has ordered Google to deactivate an email address because a bank sent the individual confidential financial information. The recipient, who Google refuses to identify to the court, has done nothing wrong and yet will not have email service.

Can you imagine if a judge ordered postal delivery to my house be cut off because I received my neighbor's mail? (Note: this happens several times a week.) The bank and judge, and by extension the federal government, are not only over reaching, but they are violating the innocent user's privacy and first amendment rights.

Some are suggesting that someone at the bank goofed up and probably just mistyped the email address, and that this represents the best of all bad possibilities. This is wrong on several levels. First, the bank should never send confidential information over unencrypted email. If they need to contact the customer, they should mail a link which sends the user to his password protected account. My bank has an internal messaging system for just this purpose.

Second, why would a bank employee be typing in any email address? When you set up a bank account, you should either type in your email address yourself (two times), or write it on an application, and have that address confirmed. Any information sent from the bank to the customer should be automatic and not done in Outlook. They should never take an email address over the phone.

Finally, the best option would have been to have a security policy in place before this incident, and not violate innocent people's rights after the fact. A bank that engages in this kind of behavior cannot be trusted with your money.