May 20, 2010

Google Sued for Scooping Up Wi-Fi Data

by Cheryl Miller
The Recorder

The first challenge to Google's now-ended practice of scooping up bits of private wireless data with its Street View vehicles will not come from the Silicon Valley giant's backyard.

Instead, three Oregon lawyers have filed what is believed to be the first class action against Google's so-called data sniffing. The complaint, filed this week in the U.S. District Court in Oregon, alleges that the company violated Washington and Oregon privacy laws as well as the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The plaintiffs are seeking up to $10,000 per violation suffered by each class member plus other damages.

Google executives admitted last week that the company's Street View cars "mistakenly" picked up bits of private data from WiFi networks while cruising neighborhoods around the world for information used in products like Google Maps.

Google Senior Vice President Alan Eustace wrote that an engineer accidentally inserted the wrong data-sniffing code into the Street View cars' information-collection software. Google indefinitely parked its mobile program, apologized and said the questionable data was safely segregated and protected.

But privacy ministers from countries around the world have asked for more information about what was collected. And on Wednesday, two U.S. congressmen called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate.

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