Google faces another privacy related lawsuit this week, as two plaintiffs have sued the company for violating the California Invasion of Privacy Act. The plaintiffs allege that in order to insert targeted ads, Gmail intercepts their communications without permission. The law stipulates that a person must be doing the intercepting, which Google denies as its ad targeting is automated. The plaintiffs counter that for the purposes of the lawsuit Google's computers should be considered a person. 

After J.C. Penney has publicly jettisoned its coupon strategy after finding that it conditioned customers to only purchase with a sizable discount, a recent email from the retailer's CEO containing a barcode good for $10 off has raised industry watchers' eyebrows. While the company insists that the barcode is a "gift" and not a coupon, analysts are not so convinced and expect the retailer to backpedal from its every day low pricing and issue more coupons via email and other channels during the holiday season. 

Email marketing may be the least sexy topic in the search world today, but a strong email program can make meaningful contributions towards a small business' integrated marketing program, SEO included. Email helps with social media, local reputation management, backlinking and directory reviews. Read the full article at Search Engine Watch.

SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) all help to combat phishing, spam and spoofing. But some myths about how far they go and what else marketers can do still linger. 

ExactTarget announced today its acquisition of marketing automation company Pardot for $95 million, and its purchase of predictive analytics firm iGoDigital for $25 million. 

Website Magazine today published its list of the top 50 Email Service Providers. Instead of a qualitative assessment based on feature set and customer feedback, the list is instead compiled based on website traffic to the ESP's main site (not including clicks on shortened URLs sent in messages by the ESP's clients). iContact sits at the top of the list, followed by Vertical Response and NetAtlantic.

The IAB released online advertising industry revenues for the first half of 2012 today. Total revenues across all online ad categories was $17 billion, a 14% increase over the first half of 2011. Included in the breakout are email advertising revenues, which dropped slightly from $79 million to $78 million. 

Rethinking your email program means incorporating behavioral elements for customers and prospects. Doing so breathes new life into reactivation programs, provides a more measured response to the frequency question and turns a single email campaign into a targeted behavior-based program.  Read the full article on the Silverpop blog.

A new study by the CMO Council found that 51% of marketers are using mobile communications to nofity and inform customers and 43% are delivering content and services, many are missing opportunities to deepen relationships. Only 23% use mobile for customer care, 19% gather real-time insights, and 18% use the channel to acquire or reactivate customers.

A South Carolina Judge has ruled that email that has been open and resides in the inbox may not be protected under the Stored Communications Act, conflicting with the ruling of the South Carolina Court of Appeals. At issue is whether an opened email constitutes "electronic storage" or if it is "backup protection." The case went to trial when a man sued his wife, daugher-in-law and a private investigator after they hacked into his Yahoo! email account and discovered damaging emails between the man and his paramour.