Google has agreed to pay a $7 million fine for collecting unauthorized personal data of people through its Street View service.
Internet giant Google found itself in hot waters when it was declared guilty of collecting unauthorized personal data of people using itsr Street View service. The company has agreed to pay a $7 million fine and as part of the deal has also agreed to destroy all emails, passwords, web histories and personal data it collected through the service. The agreement was between Google and 38 states of America.
Reportedly, data was collected from home wireless networks as Street View cars photographed neighborhoods between 2008 and 2010. Google claimed that it was an error in the service and is pleased to have resolved the issue.
"We work hard to get privacy right at Google. But in this case we didn't, which is why we quickly tightened up our systems to address the issue," the firm said in a statement. "The project leaders never wanted this data, and didn't use it or even look at it. We're pleased to have worked with Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen and the other state attorneys general to reach this agreement."
The new settlement was announced by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman saying that consumers have a right to protect their important financial and personal data from being used inappropriately by companies like Google.
He said that this settlement addresses the issue of privacy and "protects the rights of people whose information was collected without their permission."
Apart from the fine and agreeing to delete all data collected, Google has also agreed to launch a training program for its employees about privacy and data use and willrun the program for ten years. Also, the company has to run a public advertisement to educate people on how to secure their personal information on wireless networks.
Google claims that the data was collected unintentionally because of a rogue code that was mistakenly included in the software by a lone engineer. This led to many data authorities demanding that Google make the necessary changes and pay for the damages already done.
According to Jan Dawson, chief telecoms analyst at research firm Ovum, the $7 million fine is the biggest of its type till date but is still "peanuts" for a company as large as Google.
Dawson says that instead of a fine, a larger threat to the company would be if the regulation on how the company could use data such as browsing history was changed.
According to Nick Pickles, head of the U.K. privacy campaign group, Big Brother Watch, the U.S. handled the controversy better than U.K.
"British regulators barely managed to slap Google on the wrist for this, so yet again British consumers seem to be left with weaker protection of their privacy than other countries," he said.
