Google Street View Cars

In this article from Time, Did Google Get Off Easy With $7 Million "Wi-Spy" Settlement? the author, Sam Gustin, highlighted privacy concerns over Google's street view cars.  Some states have even sued Google for the data these cars collected, calling it "Wi-Spy."

If you didn't know, Google's street view cars...the ones with the 360 degree camera on top that gives you those "Like I'm standing right there" pictures in Google Maps...also collects Wi-Fi data.  According to the article, Google collected browser activity, email traffic, and shockingly, medical and financial records.

What I don't understand is why Google is getting hit with a law suite for this...and in my opinion they are being very generous for willing to give up $7 million, because I don't think they did anything wrong.  Google didn't hack into any networks or steal anyone's accounts...the info they gathered was via open Wi-Fi networks.  That means, either 1) people were connecting to financial and medical websites from open Wi-Fi at places like Star Bucks.  2) People were connecting to financial/medical websites over an unencrypted home network.  3) Businesses were conducting their daily activities over an unencrypted website, which is alarming.

I don't see how any of those scenarios are Google's fault.  If there's a lawsuit to be made it would be against any company that's doing business over an open Wi-Fi network.  I don't know if there was any data collected via  #3 above....I'm betting it was primarily 1 & 2...in which case those people were being either ignorant or ignoring the risks.

In the article, Connecticut Attorney General, George Jepsen, said, “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.”   The key word there is "reasonable."  In my book, if you expect your data to remain private while using an open Wi-Fi network, that's not reasonable. 

Google wasn't trying to do anything sneaky and to do what Google did doesn't require any special skills or equipment.  You could do it by just driving around in your car with your wireless laptop running any of several freeware programs that will allow you to see any unencrypted wireless traffic....I know I've done it in the past.  Heck, at times I've just sat on my deck and picked up a few unsecured networks.

In the settlement, Google is supposed to ... sponsor a nationwide public service campaign to help educate consumers about securing their wireless networks and protecting personal information''...  I honestly don't know why that should be Google's responsibility.

I admit that Google has done some questionable behavior in the past, I just don't see this as one of them.