Google will soon pay the state nearly $115,000 for collecting data from Mississippians without their permission.JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
Google will soon pay the state nearly $115,000 for collecting data from Mississippians without their permission.
Attorney General Jim Hood says Mississippi was among 38 states in a lawsuit against the internet giant over its collection of data from unsecured wireless networks while taking photographs for its Street View service between 2008 and March 2010. The total amount of the settlement was $7 million.
Google's Street View cars were equipped with software that collected network identification information for use in future geolocation services, but it also collected "payload data" being transferred over unsecured networks.
While Google says it was unaware the payload data was being collected, it acknowledged the information may have included addresses of web pages, partial or complete email communications, and private information being transmitted to or from the network user while the Street View cars were driving by.
Google has since disabled the equipment used to collect the payload data from its Street View vehicles and will destroy the data, according to the Attorney General.
According to the settlement the Attorney General's office can use the money for the following things:
"Said payment shall be used by the Attorneys General for such purposes that may include, but are not limited to civil penalties, attorneys' fees and other costs of investigation and litigation, or to be place in, or applies to, the consumer protection law enforcement fund, including future consumer protection or privacy enforcement, consumer education, litigation or local consumer air fund or revolving fund, used to defray the costs of the inquiry leading hereto, or for other uses permitted by state law, at the sole discretion of each Attorney General."
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