Class Action Privacy Suit Against Google Street View Given Go-Ahead by 9th Circ.

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A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit this week affirmed a lower court's dismissal of a motion to dismiss a class-action invasion of privacy suit brought against San Francisco-based Google, Inc., concerning Street View.

In its 35-page decision in Joffe, et al. v. Google, Inc. (Case No. 11-17483), the appellate court shot down Google's claim that Street View's accumulation of data was protected by an exception to the Wiretap Act [18 U.S.C. §§ 2510-2522]. "Surely," wrote 9th Circuit Judge Jay Bybee, "Congress did not intend to condone such an intrusive and unwarranted invasion of privacy when it enacted the Wiretap Act." 

The six-year-old Street View was supposed to supplement Google Maps by offering users images of locations, but Google's vehicles wound up in a ditch when its Wi-Fi antennas captured emails, user names, passwords and other documents from unencrypted wireless networks of businesses and residences.  The company settled a lawsuit with the Attorneys General of 38 states arising from the Street View transgression last March (see "TUOL" post 3/13/13) by agreeing to pay a $7 million fine.

Google & AGs Hash Out Street View Privacy Settlement

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pending court approval, Google, Inc., has settled the Street View-inspired invasion of privacy case brought by the Attorneys General of 38 states.

According to reports in The New York Times and Wall St. Journal, the San Francisco-based social platform colossus will pay a $7 million fine for its street map project transgressions, in which Google vehicles equipped with antennas and software captured private network id data, including passwords and email, payload data and data frames from unencrypted wireless networks of residences and businesses.

Besides the $7 million penalty, which the company is likely to earn back in the time it takes "TUOL" to complete this post, under the proposed settlement, Google must promote a nationwide campaign to inform consumers about how to protect personal data and secure wireless networks, educate its employees concerning user data confidentiality, observe protocols to protect Street View data collected from 2008 to 2010, produce a YouTube video informing viewers how to encrypt wireless network data that it must promote in daily ads for two years and take out educational ads in the largest newspapers in the 38 affected states. The company must, within six months of the settlement, implement an internal privacy program.

Google's "rap sheet" continues to grow. Last year, the company was fined $22.5 million by the FTC for circumventing the Safari browser's privacy settings (see "TUOL" post 2/21/12), and paid the FCC $25,000 for obstructing the agency's investigation of the Street View data grab. In 2011, Google agreed to be audited for a 20-year period by the FTC after admitting employing deceptive tactics when it launched the Buzz social network. Looming large as the next privacy battleground is Google Glass, computer eyewear that potentially could eavesdrop on individuals' private interactions. Hard to say whether the 15-year-old Google is just displaying adolescent rambunctiousness or full-blown juvenile delinquency.

Led by then-Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, the multi-state probe of Street View began in June 2010 (see "TUOL" post 10/16/10).

Google 'Berned' By Swiss Court

Image via WikipediaGoogle, Inc., the Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet search engine leviathan, must be doing something wrong, given that it has even managed to make the ever-neutral Swiss belligerent.

According to an Associated Press story, the Swiss Federal Administrative Court has ordered Google to guarantee anonymity regarding publication of license plates and faces before green-lighting Google's Street View project's generating of street-level photos. The ruling, which the Internet search engine company could appeal to the Swiss Supreme Federal Court, is the latest blow to Google since the company admitted "inadvertently" compiling personal data from unsecured wireless networks during the Street View mapping project (See "TUOL" post 3/22/11).

Google temporarily ceased uploading images of Swiss cities in 2009 because of complaints by Switzerland's agency charged with protecting data privacy. Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Great Britain and the Czech Republic are among nations that have taken up a cudgel against Google's Street View data gathering.

Google Experiences Expensive 'Street View' from Paris

Image by N'ayez pas peur !! La Fabrique de Blogs via FlickrMountain View, California-based Internet search giant Google has been socked with a euro100,000 ($142,114) fine by CNIL (Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertes), France's independent administrative authority concerned with privacy issues, over Google's admitted transgressions involving Street View, which offers three-dimensional city maps worldwide.

According to Associated Press, Google has been targeted by 30 countries who complained about Google's purported inadvertent amassing of passwords and other personal data via unsecured wireless networks during the Street View project.  Among nations considering penalties are Great Britain, Australia, the Czech Republic and Canada. [See "TUOL" posts 11/19/10, 10/20/10, 9/22/10, and 7/9/10.]

Google accumulated the data, which it has promised to delete, from 2007 to 2010, capturing the information from camera-mounted cars and bicycles. The penalty assessed against Google is the largest fine ever imposed by CNIL.

Google to U.K.: Sorry Old Chaps About Street View

Image by freefotouk via FlickrPersonal data culled from citizens of Great Britain by Google's Street View force will be destroyed, according to the Associated Press.

The U.K.'s Information Commissioner exacted a pledge from Google that its employees would receive better data protection training and that each of its new projects would generate a  privacy document.  The Mountainview, Calif.-based Internet search giant claims it inadvertently accumulated passwords and other personal information via unsecured wireless networks during its efforts to produce three-dimensional city maps worldwide.

Numerous nations, including Canada, Australia and the Czech Republic have clashed with Google over the Street View privacy breach. (See "TUOL" posts on 10/20/10, 9/22/10, 7/9/10.)

244k Germans Say 'Nein' to Google Street Maps

Image by Getty Images via @daylife
According to an Associated Press story, nearly 3 percent of urban dwellers in Germany's 20 largest cities want no part of Mountain View, Calif.-based Google's Street View program.


Among the 23 nations where Street View is available, only Germany has enabled its populace to opt out of the Google program that pictures homes on the Internet. Citing individuals' privacy concerns, German authorities insisted  that Google accept requests from citizens who did not want to participate in the mapping program.


When Street View goes online, those who do not want to participate--roughly 244,000 people by Google's estimate--will be provided a tool by Google that will make their homes unrecognizable.

Germany apparently has misgivings about a virtual invasion, a position that Poland, France and Belgium may find ironic.

Czech Cancel Google Street View Expansion

Image by flydime via Flickr
Claiming the mapping function of Street View is too invasive of personal privacy, the Office for Personal Data Protection of the Czech Republic has decided against issuing the necessary registration for Street View to  Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet search engine colossus Google, Inc., according to an Associated Press article.


Google has encountered stiff opposition from several European countries and other nations around the world to the Street View feature because of privacy concerns.  Photos of neighborhoods offered by the Google function offend those who claim individuals are being filmed without their consent in places they may not want to be seen and captured engaging in activities they may want kept out of the public eye. Australia has claimed Google violated its privacy act while assembling mapping data. (See "TUOL" post 7/9/10).

It's not easy being omnipotent.