After Oracle Victory, Google Now Faces More US Government Scrutiny
June 11, 2012
Things may not have went exactly as Oracle planned, but according to Lawmakers call on DOJ to reopen investigation into Google Wi-Fi spying it drew more unwanted glances in Google’s direction. The Silicon Valley titan has been attracting questionable looks in regards to its ‘flexibility’ regarding privacy and copy right policies.
According to Pallone and Barrow, Google may have “misled” Congress and federal investigators about the Wi-Fi snooping and:
“We are concerned that the facts uncovered by the FCC’s investigation put Google’s initial explanation of these events in question,” they wrote.
“While Google has called the snooping a mistake, the FCC report said Google’s actions resulted from a deliberate software-design decision of a Google employee who examined and evaluated the data that was collected and shared his findings with others at the company.”
“Privacy is a critical issue and neither Google’s influence nor size absolves it from responsibility.”
In April, the engineers of Google’s Street View service decided it should use the Street View cars for scanning Wi-Fi networks and war driving. The information gathered would benefit in the creation of maps of Wi-Fi hotspots. A code was also developed for collecting Wi-Fi payload data, for the future benefit of some Google services. One may question if Oracle achieved true victory. They definitely put Google back in the unhappy face of more government scrutiny.
Jennifer Shockley, June 11, 2012
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
