Gmail account deactivated; stupid that it happened and stupid that Google obliged.

A federal judge ordered Google to deactivate an email account of someone who was sent a confidential email by accident by a bank. The order was issued by the U.S. District Court Judge James Ware. He is a district court judge in the northern district of California.

Along with the order to deactivate the account, the judge also ordered that the gmail account user be identified and that the court be given his or her contact information, even though the Gmail account user has not been accused of any wrong doing in the case.

The ruling stems from a monumental error by the Wilson, Wyo.-based Rocky Mountain Bank. On Aug. 12, the bank mistakenly sent names, addresses, social security numbers and loan information of more than 1,300 customers to a Gmail address. When the bank realized the problem, it sent a message to that same address asking the recipient to contact the bank and destroy the file without opening it. No one responded, so the bank contacted Google to ask for information about the account holder.

In keeping with its privacy policy, Google told the bank it would have to get a court order to obtain such data. The bank then filed papers asking a court to order Google to disclose the information and deactivate the account.

When the bank tried to file its papers under a seal, the U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Whyte did not allow that to happen. It was earlier in the week that the case went from Whyte to Ware.

What do you do when an email account is given information that it was obviously never supposed to get? i think that the user in this situation should at least be notified as to what is going on with his or her account (and the bank, along with the U.S. District Court should hope that the user is not a consumer rights activist or read the Consumerist on a regular basis.). I suppose the bank should have tried to shut down the email that was sent, but should the email account really have been turned off completely?

What do you all think?

I’m not so sure myself. I don’t think that the account should have been turned off.