Connecticut AG Investigating Google WiFi Incident

[madinmaryland]

http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=225700807&cid=nl_IW_daily_2010-06-22_h

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said on Monday that his office will helm an investigation into the unauthorized collection of wireless network traffic by Google's Street View cars on behalf of an undisclosed number of states.

"My office will lead a multistate investigation -- expected to involve a significant number of states -- into Google's deeply disturbing invasion of personal privacy," Blumenthal said in a statement. "Street View cannot mean Complete View -- invading home and business computer networks and vacuuming up personal information and communications."

Over 30 states participated in a conference call about the status of Connecticut's investigation, but it's not immediately clear how many of those will participate in Blumenthal's inquiry.

Last month, Google revealed that it had inadvertently included experimental code that gathered unprotected WiFi network traffic in the software it used to capture images for its Street View service. The disclosure, which Google executives have apologized for and acknowledged as a screw-up, has prompted multiple lawsuits and Congressional scrutiny in the U.S. and widespread indignation in Europe.

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Scary thought what they were trying to get away with.