Google has agreed to pay $7 million as a result of an investigation brought by a coalition of state attorneys general, officials said Tuesday, in one of the largest fines for violating privacy in the digital age.
The fine stems from the Street View case, in which Google deployed special vehicles to photograph the houses and offices lining the world’s streets. But for several years the company was also secretly collecting personal information – emails, medical and financial records, passwords – as it cruised by. It was data-scooping from millions of unencrypted wireless networks.
“Consumers have a reasonable expectation of privacy,” George Jepsen, Connecticut attorney general, said in a statement Tuesday.
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