GOOGLE Gets Off Cheap > Chump Change To Settle The StreetView "Wi-Spy" Scandal

'Mapping The World' might be one good thing Google does, but when it comes to INVASION OF PRIVACY we really need to draw a line on the limits. Google has a fleet of StreetView cars deployed in more than 30 countries around the globe - your MesaZona blogger spotted one cruising around DTMesa two months ago. When you think that just one Google StreetView car was here for just a couple of days, you can image what fleets of city-owned cars can cover all the time.

At right is Marius Milner, formerly known as Engineer Doe, the Googler who created a Wi-Fi sniffing code which allowed Street View cars to suck up usernames, passwords, emails, and at least one conversation between two people planning an extra-marital affair. Google had previously declined to identify him publicly, but a state investigator who had been looking into the "Wi-Spy" case revealed Milner's name to the New York Times 
Welcome to The Not-So Private Parts where technology & privacy collide
Reference > Forbes 2012/0501 by Kashmir Hill 
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NO IDEA what "Wi-Spy" is?

 

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This is a recap from an earlier post, with the same reporter's update after it:
1 Google Settles Privacy Case Over Street View for $13 Million

By Peter Blumberg     ‎July‎ ‎19‎, ‎2019‎ ‎4‎:‎57‎ ‎PM

Google agreed to pay $13 million to end long-running litigation over claims that it violated a U.S. wiretapping law when vehicles used for its Street View mapping project captured data from private Wi-Fi networks.

The settlement agreement filed Friday in .the company to destroy all the collected data, as well as to educate people how to set up encrypted wireless networks, . .

READ MORE > https://www.bloomberg.com                                          

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HOLD ON JUST A MOMENT! This was 'settled' before wasn't it?

First a comment from a consumer watchdog group included in the announcement:

". . . Asking Google to educate consumers about privacy is like asking the fox to teach the chickens how to ensure the security of their coop,”

----- said John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project director. “The educational video will also drive consumers to the YouTube platform, where Google will just gather more data about them for its digital dossiers” . . . "

It’s Official: Google Settles “WiSpy” Case For $7 Million

Greg Sterling on March 12, 2013 at 2:11 pm

"As reported last week, Google has formally settled the so-called “WiSpy” case with 30 US state Attorneys General for $7 million. The agreement also contains some other non-monetary provisions that are, frankly, more meaningful.

The investigation began in 2010 concerning unauthorized collection of private emails and other “payload” data by Google Street View vehicles. The US Federal Communications Commission concluded its own investigation of the affair with no finding of liability against Google.
As mentioned, the $7 million settlement is insignificant for Google. However, the press release outlines additional measures that Google must take to educate employees and consumers about data privacy . . .

While there may be a couple of European investigations still winding down (privacy and advertising is still a very hot topic in Europe), the bulk of WiSpy cases around the world have now been closed or settled.

Postscript: Persistent Google critic Consumer Watchdog issued the following statement in response to the settlement announced earlier today [see above insert]
Reference: Search Engine Land.com
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Google Finds Cheap Way Out

of Multibillion-Dollar ‘Wi-Spy’ Suit

By Peter Blumberg  
‎July‎ ‎21‎, ‎2019‎ ‎7‎:‎56‎ ‎AM    

> Settlement will close the books on a scandal from a decade ago            

> Money to go to privacy groups instead of Wi-Fi network owners

"Google is poised to pay a modest $13 million to end a 2010 privacy lawsuit that was once called the biggest U.S. wiretap case ever and threatened the internet giant with billions of dollars in damages.

The settlement would close the books on a scandal that was touched off by vehicles used by Google for its Street View mapping project. Cars and trucks scooped up emails, passwords and other personal information from unencrypted household Wi-Fi networks belonging to tens of millions of people all over the world.

The debacle became known as “Wi-Spy,” and it caused almost as much of an uproar as Facebooks’s more recent Cambridge Analytica scandal.

 

The accord still requires approval of a San Francisco judge.
But under the settlement, proposed Friday night with no fanfare, the owners of the Wi-Fi networks whose information was captured by Google won’t get individual payouts, except for about 20 plaintiffs who filed the complaint as a class action.

Instead, what’s left of the $13 million -- after administrative costs and the lawyers who brought the lawsuit get a commission of as much as 25% -- will be distributed to a handful of consumer privacy advocacy groups, according to a court filing detailing the terms of the deal.

. . . in Friday’s filing, the plaintiffs’ lawyers said the settlement was justified, in part, because there was a risk that they could still lose the case -- and end up with nothing.

They also argued
>that the accord will act as a deterrent
and

> that the funds designated for privacy-oriented groups will help educate future information technology workers to “to become safeguards of internet privacy rather than exploiters of personal information communicated over the internet.”

Google declined to comment.

— With assistance by Mark Bergen, and Robert Burnson

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