Google will pay $7 million to settle claims with dozens...
Google will pay $7 million to settle claims with dozens of states regarding its unauthorized collection of data from unsecured Wi-Fi points through the company’s Street View vehicles, Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen said Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/ZjOI7I). Connecticut led the eight-state…
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“executive committee,” which included Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri and Texas, that investigated the matter for two years and negotiated what’s known as an assurance of voluntary compliance with Google, Jepsen’s office said. Attorneys general from 38 states and the District of Columbia signed the agreement to resolve consumer protection and privacy claims. “The importance of this agreement goes beyond financial terms,” Jepsen said: The pact recognizes consumers “reasonable expectation of privacy” and ensures Google “will not use similar tactics in the future” to get personal data. The pact (http://1.usa.gov/X48wKN) requires Google to engage in a “comprehensive employee education program” about privacy or confidentiality of user data; sponsor a nationwide public service campaign to educate consumers about securing wireless networks, through a “how-to” YouTube video, “daily online ads for two years” about the video, a post on its public policy blog explaining the value of encrypted networks, half-page ads in national and state newspapers and an educational pamphlet about online safety; and continue to secure “and eventually destroy” Street View data collected between 2008 and March 2010, Jepsen’s office said. The company agreed to “corporate culture changes,” including “direct notification of senior management, supervisors and legal advisors” about the pact’s terms and development of policies for responding to “identified events” involving unauthorized data collection or use, his office said. As lead state, Connecticut will get nearly $521,000 in the settlement. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said separately (http://bit.ly/10BwT58) his state’s share will be about $192,000.A spokeswoman for Google told us that while “we work hard to get privacy right ... in this case we didn’t,” and the company “quickly tightened up our systems to address the issue. The project leaders never wanted this data, and didn’t use it or even look at it.” The company is “pleased” to have worked with Jepsen and other attorneys general, she said.