This is infuriating. Google's email service will provide over a gigabyte of storage data for each user, in contrast to Yahoo and Hotmail which only offer a few megabytes. In exchange, Google will scan your email for keywords and attach ads based on those keywords.

Sounds great? Not exactly. California state legislators and consumer advocate groups want to shut this down because its an invasion of your privacy (as if your privacy is not yours to sell). Eugene Volokh previously wrote about this under the title "Please save us from ourselves, Ms. Legislator" reffering to State Sen. Liz Figueroa and her efforts to bully Google.

This is liberalism run amock. These people are driven by an intense desire to play the hero, to rescue the misguided consumer from the evil overtures of corporate America. Its interesting that at their extreme liberals are not that different from the religious right; both end up trying hard to force a certain set of values on society at large (thou shalt not commit adultery vs. thou shalt not sell thy privacy).