Goldman Sachs wants court to force Google to unsend an email

[Scorpus]

Investment banking firm Goldman Sachs has accidentally sent an email containing "highly confidential" information to the wrong person, and now they're demanding Google unsend the email.

According to a report from Reuters, a Goldman Sachs contractor was testing changes to the company's internal systems to meet the requirements of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. By mistake, the contractor sent a client's confidential brokerage account information to someone's gmail.com account, rather than the correct gs.com account.

The privacy breach occurred on June 23, which is long enough ago that the person could already have read the mistakenly-sent email. Nevertheless, Goldman Sachs has asked a US judge to issue a court order demanding Google delete the offending email, in an attempt to prevent further damages.

Before Goldman Sachs went to the courts, they attempted to reach out to the Gmail account holder to retrieve the report, but got no response. They also contacted Google for assistance, but were told an email cannot be deleted from another person's account without a court order.

In a statement, the bank said that "emergency relief is necessary to avoid the risk of inflicting a needless and massive privacy violation upon Goldman Sachs' clients, and to avoid the risk of unnecessary reputational damage to Goldman Sachs".

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/57304-goldman-sachs-wants-court-to-force-google-to-unsend-an-email.html

 

[m4a4]

Mmmm.... I feel like this could set a bad precedence; breaking one person's privacy to secure another's...

 

[cliffordcooley]

It is neither Google's or the recipient's problem. They are not the ones that made the mistake.

 

[hahahanoobs]

Watch, after this is over, Google will extend the time you have to cancel a sent email for everyone.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Watch, after this is over, Google will extend the time you have to cancel a sent email for everyone.

Think of it as an "Email waiting room", a waiting period before the Email is actually sent. lol

 

[davislane1]

It is neither Google's or the recipient's problem. They are not the ones that made the mistake.

Although I agree with you in principle, when King Kong shows up at Bobo's door asking for his banana back, it's certainly Bobo's problem.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Yes but telling the carrier he has to go and take the banana back from Bobo without first confronting Bobo is wrong. That is the equivalent to Amazon sending a product to the wrong address and then asking for it back. The recipient is under no obligations to send it back, unless they have a moral code to follow.

 

[Guest]

I think deleting an email you sent is a perfectly logical feature, I wish it were possible. I sometimes send emails erroneously, and I'd like to revert them. It's possible to delete Skype messages you sent, why can't the same be done with email? I see no difference, if it's in the same email "eco-system" (gmail). No technical reasons, just bureaucracy.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Yeah I wish I could take back things I say all the time!

 

[Nilbud]

"the risk of unnecessary reputational[sic] damage to Goldman Sachs".
If they had the slightest clue about Goldman Sachs' actual reputation based on their actual criminal actions, they could never have typed that sentence.

 

[wastedkill]

So because Goldman sachs employees cant read they now want to force google to delete their mistakes when its already too late.... this is all over the news so its already too late! everyone will be checking their email and leaking those so called "confidentail" documents to reddit...

 

[Guest]

Since when do I need to read with my own eyes the email to already have GS damaged by what they have done?

 

[VitalyT]

Many people want the "unstupid" button, but it just doesn't exist, Alice

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

It is neither Google's or the recipient's problem. They are not the ones that made the mistake.

That's exactly how I feel. They can't hold the recipient or Google responsible for their stupidity. If I'd been the recipient I would've just deleted it thinking it was just spam and reported it to Google as spam on top of that.

 

[treetops]

Christ when will they just start legally treating emails like letters. We have had a mailing system for hundreds of years, why not use the knowledge we already gained concerning our privacy.

 

[misor]

Email sending is like any chess game. it is touch-move.

 

[davislane1]

So because Goldman sachs employees cant read they now want to force google to delete their mistakes when its already too late.... this is all over the news so its already too late! everyone will be checking their email and leaking those so called "confidentail" documents to reddit...

It wasn't a GS employee who sent the email; it was the employee of a contractor.

"the risk of unnecessary reputational[sic] damage to Goldman Sachs".
If they had the slightest clue about Goldman Sachs' actual reputation based on their actual criminal actions, they could never have typed that sentence.

GS only has a bad rap w/ the "little guy". Big clients (wealthy accounts and firms) are generally taken well care of, for obvious reasons. Leaking account information, though, stands to damage the latter relationships.

 

[Kibaruk]

How about this:

Whenever you have to send confidential data, you actually check twice the recipients email before sending it.

Sounds simple enough...

 

[MikeAcker]

Cry cry cry. they should have put their confidentiality notes on these ha ha ho ho he he rof,lmfao

This message may contain confidential information protected by law through attorney-client privilege or professional peer review/quality evaluation privilege. It is intended only for the individual or entity named above. It is prohibited for anyone else to disclose copy, distribute, or use the contents of this message. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.

 

[Fbarnett]

I just checked my Gmail!!!! I am the chosen one!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Guest]

While they're at it, why don't they force google to turn back time just for the crack of it!!

 

[DelJo63]

Hmm; Another example of lack of technical knowledge.

The SMTP protocol (ie sending email) has no means to retract (ie delete) the message. In fact, the send side connects to what we see as the POP (ie read side of email) and does not even know or have access to the inbox of the recipient.

In software engineering that is known as information hiding - - only one component knows how to do xyz or where an object is stored.

 

[thelatestmodel]

Cry cry cry. they should have put their confidentiality notes on these ha ha ho ho he he rof,lmfao

This message may contain confidential information protected by law through attorney-client privilege or professional peer review/quality evaluation privilege. It is intended only for the individual or entity named above. It is prohibited for anyone else to disclose copy, distribute, or use the contents of this message. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.

Actually, these confidentiality notices mean basically nothing in court, and you might as well stop using them.

 

[Nick_Knac]

Sloppy or obtuse use of language is a corporate disease of which I suspect Goldman Sachs is riven, and unfortunately we live in a corporate world. You cannot unsend any more than unjump or unsee. You cannot undo anything once you have done it, but you can remedy, cancel, or ameliorate what you have done by doing something else. So what corporate creep came up with 'unsend' I wonder? The concept is ludicrous. You can have unsent things but once they are sent – that’s it.
The responsibility is Goldman Sachs', it was information they held in trust, and it was they who failed to secure it against accidental disclosure. It's for the courts to decide if the measures to secure confidentiality where reasonable. Goldman Sachs are right to do what they can to mitigate the effects of their error, but I don't see that it has anything whatever to do with Google. They are, or should only be, a conduit for communication as far as emails are concerned (the fact that they are not is another subject).
The ownership of information is going to be an interesting side show to this, I hope.

 

[Night Hacker]

This is sort of like saying something to someone and then demanding that they forget it. The damage has been done.

One question I have is, why did a contractor have access to private email? Seems to me they have a more serious problem with security than just this one email being sent.

 

[Capaill]

There is no way Google is going to give an external entity the power to delete mails from someone else's account. As mentioned above, maybe they will add a feature to enable delayed sending, allowing you time to realise the mistake and cancel the send. That's about it.

If the account is even active, surely by now with all the publicity the person has copied the document off the account and is having a good read through to see what parts can be sold. Or is waiting for GS to offer a nice big reward for the safe return of their document.

Finders keepers. Losers weepers.