Google said they will take the necessary measures to ensure that they do not breach privacy again through network taps in the future. The internet search company also will destroy the private data collected in accordance with the settlement terms.
In a statement, Google said that they were pleased to have reached a settlement and that privacy is of utmost importance to them. They said that the privacy breach was a loophole they experienced and they have since tightened their systems in order to address privacy issues. They further explained that the data was not collected intentionally and project leaders did not even go through the collected data.
Google introduced the Street View cars in 2007 which have cameras attached on their roofs. The cars film 360-degree images which are used for Google Map’s Street View. The privacy breach was discovered when European regulators investigated the program. Google responded saying that they had discovered the ‘payload data’ which was mistakenly collected from users’ unprotected wireless networks. Private lawsuits have yet to be settled which were brought against Google by different parties regarding the privacy violations.
