Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, PRIVACY NEWS: Google to Pay $7 Million to States to Settle “Street View” Privacy Claims, (Mar 13, 2013)

By Carrie DeLeon, TR Daily

Google, Inc., will pay $7 million as part of a multistate settlement resolving an investigation brought by a group of attorneys general into the company’s unauthorized collection of data from unsecured wireless networks through Google’s Street View vehicles.

An eight-state executive committee led by Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen (D.) conducted a two-year investigation into the personal information collected by Google’s vehicles. Including member states of the executive committee, attorneys general for 38 states and the District of Columbia signed a settlement agreement with Google to resolve their consumer protection and privacy claims.

“While the $7 million is significant, the importance of this agreement goes beyond financial terms. Consumers have a reasonable expectation of privacy,” AG Jepsen said in a March 12 statement. “This agreement recognizes those rights and ensures that Google will not use similar tactics in the future to collect personal information without permission from unsuspecting consumers.”

As part of the settlement, Google agreed to engage in a comprehensive employee education program about the privacy or confidentiality of user data; to sponsor a public service campaign to help educate consumers about securing their wireless networks; and to continue to secure, and eventually destroy, the data collected and stored by its vehicles nationwide between 2008 and March 2010.

Attorney General Jepsen gave Google credit for “working in good faith with my office to develop policies and best practices to protect consumer privacy going forward.” Google’s Street View vehicles collected network identification information as well as data frames and “payload data” being transmitted over unsecured business and personal wireless networks. Google acknowledged the data may have included addresses of requested Web pages, partial or complete email communications, and any confidential or private information being transmitted to or from the network user at the time.

Google said the network identification information was collected for use in future geolocation services, but that executives were unaware the payload data also was being collected. The company has since disabled or removed the network identification and data collection equipment from its vehicles, and agreed not to collect any additional data by means of those vehicles without notice and consent.

Also, Google agreed that the payload data was not used, and will not be used, and that the information collected has not been disclosed to a third party. “The information collected was segregated and secured, and will be destroyed as soon as legally practicable,” according to the Assurance of Voluntary Compliance signed by Google. Companies: Google, Inc.

Companies: Google, Inc.

News: Privacy