Mass. Attorney General seeks information from Google about Street View privacy issues
By APFriday, June 18, 2010
Mass. AG seeks privacy information from Google
BOSTON — Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is seeking information from Google Inc. about the search engine’s “Street View” project to ensure it is not acquiring personal information.
Coakley said Friday she is concerned about reports “Street View” acquired payload data over Wi-Fi networks. The data could be used to obtain e-mail addresses, passwords and bank account information.
Other federal and state officials, and foreign governments have made similar queries.
Google has acknowledged inadvertently sucking up fragments of information, but said it was not used to identify people or households or in any of its products or services.
A Google spokeswoman said Friday it was a “mistake” for Google to include a code in its software that collected payload data, but the company does not believe it did anything illegal and is working to respond to questions and concerns of authorities.
