Google has faced 7 class-action lawsuits as well as a high-rank FTC interrogation in the U.S over its suspiciously accidental snooping into open Wi-Fi networks. Today however, alongside several improvements Google has began to implement internally and a promise to remove all illicit data announced, the agency stopped its interrogation, as reported David Vladeck – director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection - in an official letter to the corporation.
“The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has closed an investigation into Google Street View cars snooping into open Wi-Fi networks, with the agency declining to take action…[However] Government agencies in several European countries have also investigated the Wi-Fi snooping.”
Google’s ‘intuitive’ means of data collection have raised contention on a global scale, especially in Europe. The Spanish Data Protection Agency even fined the Street View architect over privacy infringement, which boldly dismisses the notion that just because they’re big they can make mistakes and that it won’t hurt in the morning, at least financially speaking. Furthermore, as covered here by siliconANGLE, Germany has also taken measure to scrutinize Google’s Wi-Fi snooping, whom allowed residents to remove their picture from its database before going public.
Despite all the lawsuits, international interrogations, controversy and protest, Google may have suffered some blows in the global arena but certainly not on the national scale. This blow can easily be acknowledged as nothing more than a slap on the wrist; a super-sized wrist nonetheless. The UK has also cleared Google of its Street Views wifi snooping.
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