Connecticut, along with 37 states and the District of Columbia, has reached a $7 million settlement with Google Inc. over claims that the search engine giant collected data from unsecured wireless networks through its Street View vehicles.
Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen led the eight-state executive committee in its two-year investigation and the subsequent settlement negotiation. Connecticut’s share of the settlement is $520,823.
“While the $7 million is significant, the importance of this agreement goes beyond financial terms. Consumers have a reasonable expectation of privacy. 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,” Jepsen said in a March 12 statement.
As part of the agreement, Google is required to engage in an employee education program about the privacy or confidentiality of user data, sponsor a nationwide public service campaign to help educate consumers about securing their wireless networks and protecting personal information, and to continue to secure, and eventually destroy, the data collected by its Street View vehicles from 2008 to early 2010.
According to Jepsen, Google said the network identification information was collected for use in future geolocation services, and that it has since disabled or removed the network identification and data collection equipment and software from its Street View vehicles.
