[LINK] US continuing to pressure Google
Jan Whitaker
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
Fri Jul 23 15:03:35 AEST 2010
US state attorneys press Google in Street View probe
July 23, 2010 - 8:40AM
US state attorneys have pressed Google to name workers who wrote the
"snooping" code that captured personal data from wireless networks
while Street View cars mapped streets.
"Google's responses continue to generate more questions than they
answer," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, part
of a 38-state coalition investigating whether the search giant broke US law.
Blumenthal in June launched the probe of "Google's deeply disturbing
invasion of personal privacy", which has drawn ire and scrutiny in an
array of countries.
He said he wants Google to tell whether testing of Street View
software prior to its use revealed it captured data from wireless
networks and to finger the engineers that wrote the code.
He also wanted to know specific spots where data was collected and
what Google did with information it gathered.
"We are asking Google to identify specific individuals responsible
for the snooping code and how Google was unaware that this code
allowed the Street View cars to collect data broadcast over Wi-Fi
networks," Blumenthal said.
"We will take all appropriate steps, including potential legal action
if warranted, to obtain complete, comprehensive answers."
The Mountain View, California-based search and advertising titan is
facing lawsuits and investigations in a number of countries in
connection with private wireless data collected by Street View cars.
The Australian Privacy Commissioner, Karen Curtis,
<http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/google-wifi-snooping-broke-the-law-privacy-watchdog-20100709-103eh.html>found
the company breached the Privacy Act.
Google executives including co-founder Sergey Brin said the
collection of wireless data was unintentional and a blunder.
Street View cars "will no longer collect any Wi-Fi information at
all, but will continue to collect photos and 3D imagery as they did
before," Google vice president of engineering Brian McClendon said
earlier this month in a blog.
He said Wi-Fi data collection equipment has been removed from its cars.
Google has apologised repeatedly for what it maintains was a "mistake."
Street View, which was launched in 2006, lets users view panoramic
street scenes on Google Maps and take a virtual "walk" through cities
such as New York, Paris or Hong Kong.
AFP and smh.com.au
This story was found at:
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/us-state-attorneys-press-google-in-street-view-probe-20100723-10nfb.html
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
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