Google is in hot waters these days as a private investigation recently revealed that Google Street View Cars acted as spies and their on-board instruments allegedly absorbed private information of general public while cruising on the streets, supposedly collecting live view data.
This investigation took a long time to complete and revealed that all the Street View Cars during 2008 and 2010 while cruising on the streets collected passwords, e-mails, financial and medical records along with other private information of the inhabitants of that locality. This data was available through hotspots and wireless networks at their offices and homes.
Google on the other hand, claims it was merely a software glitch, which accidently enabled the onboard equipment to invade privacy and made the cars collect all the personal data available on that network.
Google has been fined $7,000,000, which will be paid to District of Colombia and 38 states where the cars stole personal data. Google has also been directed to instruct its employees about user privacy. It has also launched a nationwide campaign to inform end users about this security breach and educate them about the protection measures. It also tells them how to secure their private data over the wireless networks from data stealing and other threats in the future.
