But Cutts wrote on his blog, One of the studys coauthors was Chris Jay Hoofnagle.

Hoofnagle has served as the Senior Counsel and Director of the West Coast Office of Electronic Privacy Information Center EPIC. You havent heard of EPIC? EPIC was the group that in 2004 argued that Gmail should be shut down In a letter sent to California Attorney General Bill Lockyer on Monday, the Electronic Privacy Information Center argued that Gmail must be shut down because it represents an unprecedented invasion into the sanctity of private communications.Cutts then added, I can guess what youre saying. That was five years ago. People didnt know then how useful Gmail was going to be. Okay, then did you know that EPIC lobbied the government to shut down Google Apps earlier this year?In light of this information, the fresh study doesnt look quite so ominous for Google and the online advertising industry.