A tech company has launched a program that pays law firms for access to their emails, according to a report from Above the Law. The program appears designed to obtain data that AI labs cannot easily scrape from public sources, with the article noting that "the AI labs can't scrape this data, which is kind of the point."
The headline's warning — "privilege be damned" — highlights a serious legal concern: the emails may include attorney-client privileged communications. By paying for direct access, the company sidesteps technical barriers to collection, but it may also open the door to ethical and legal challenges for participating firms.
No further details about the company, payment amounts, or scope of the program were provided in the source. The report does not indicate whether law firms have already signed up or how the program handles privilege screening, leaving open questions about compliance and liability.