US launches Google data collection investigation



    For some reason, the US Federal Communications Commission has become interested in Google’s misconduct among the latter. Let me remind you that the misconduct is that Google Street View cars equipped with WiFi wireless modules collected data from open WiFi networks for six months. This was discovered not so long ago, and Canada was the first to sound the alarm, in which the first lawsuit with Google began. After Google proved that the data was collected unintentionally, Canada calmed down, the trial ended in nothing. After this question was raised in Spain and other countries, well, and now - in the USA.

    It is also worth recalling that the project collected about 6 terabytes of such data (not photographs of streets and buildings, namely user data from open wireless networks). The engineer who created the software, which turned out to collect all this data, was punished, and Google even changed some corporate rules, strengthening the direction of the safety of user data.

    Among other data collected by the corporation were information about wireless networks, user passwords / logins from various services, sites, email and more. It is clear that few people can be glad that personal data has gone into the wrong hands. Yes, you can once again be surprised at the carelessness of those who work with open networks - but it is not necessarily stupid users who forgot to set a password on their network. It can be a network of some organizations, universities, etc.

    The FCC is currently working on this issue, trying to find out if Google violated the US Communications Act, and if so, the company will be punished. It is interesting that at first Google generally denied the possibility of collecting any information, then said that nothing was collected, and only then the company had to admit that such data was collected within six months, and a huge array was collected. In October, Google in the United States seemed to be left alone, but now the question has been raised again, and it is unlikely that everything will end successfully - most likely, the company will still have to pay a fine. On the other hand, Google is protected by sufficiently competent lawyers, so a favorable outcome is possible. But we will not try to guess the future - we will wait for the development of events.

    Via Yahoo

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