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FTC Drops Investigation of Google Street View Privacy Breach

by Terrence O'Brien on October 28, 2010 at 08:30 AM

Google Justice
The investigation by attorneys general across the U.S. into Google Street View vehicles' voracious data gobbling will continue, as will investigations by authorities in Britain, France, Germany and Spain, among other governments. But the Internet giant just received some good news; in a letter sent to Google Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) stated that it was putting an end to its federal inquiry. The regulatory body decided against fining Google for the collection of personal data, citing the company's improvements in protecting consumer privacy and its guarantees that the information would not be used.

The data collected was from unsecured and open wireless networks. The names and locations of the networks were ostensibly gathered to help process and assemble the Street View images, but Google inadvertently collected e-mails, passwords and other sensitive user data, as well. The resulting backlash and countless investigations have been a PR nightmare for Google, and we're sure the company is glad to have one less regulatory body on its back.

Tags: FederalTradeCommission, ftc, google, GoogleStreetView, privacy, StreetView, top

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