Source: Forbes.
One way or another Google has a problem.
Last week, the company released a full FCC report about its surreptitious collection of data from millions of unsecured Wi-Fi connections, using software developed six years ago for Street View, a multi-purpose technology that provides a direct view of virtually every street in the civilized world. Google’s Street View cars, which were supposed to be photographing those streets, were also intercepting email and SMS traffic (“payload data”).
The revelation first caused a big stir in 2010 when the FCC began its inquiry after the FTC and DOJ had concluded theirs. Now, with this release of the FCC document, reporters and bloggers are asking with renewed interest whether senior Google managers were aware of and condoned this privacy invasion. If they did, the search giant must now deal with a systemic problem and a public crisis that will re-intensify over the next few weeks even if nary a single illegal activity is alleged.
(The pictures are doctored!)
Categories: Americas, Internet, Science, Science and Technology