Friday, April 20, 2012

Privacy watchdog demands full FCC report on Google Street View

la-fi-tn-privacy-watchdog-asks-fcc-for-full-re-001 The Electronic Privacy Information Center is demanding that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission release the complete report on its Google Street View investigation.

The Washington advocacy group has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see the full 25-page report. The version that the FCC released last Friday was heavily redacted.

The FCC has proposed imposing a $25,000 fine on Google for stonewalling its investigators about how its street-mapping service collected and stored personal data including names, email addresses, text messages and passwords from unprotected wireless networks. The company has said collecting that data was inadvertent, and the FCC found that the search giant did not violate wiretapping laws.

Lawmakers and privacy watchdogs have called the fine a "slap on the wrist" or on the "pinkie."

Even "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart has joked that it takes Google mere seconds to make $25,000. "Boom! Twenty-five large! That’s. Nothing. For Google. Google makes $25,000 in the amount of time it took me to say the words $25,000," Stewart said.

Los Angeles Times

 
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