Google Agreed To Pay $13 Million In A Lawsuit Against Its Street View Program

In a class-action lawsuit that has lasted for nearly a decade, Google has finally agreed to pay a fine of $13 million. The lawsuit alleged the tech giant’s Street View program of collecting private data of individuals via wifi in a period from 2007 to 2010. Besides a hefty fine, the settlement demands Google to wipe out all data which has been collected and train people on encrypting their wifi networks.

When Google’s Street View cars started zipping around neighborhoods, the firm collected around 600 GB of data including emails, passwords, and other kinds of information over encrypted wifi networks in more than 30 countries. Following the inquiry of a German data protection group to audit cars’ collected data, Google explained in a 2010 blog that the data collection was just a “mistake.”

The class-action lawsuit accused Google of violating federal wiretapping laws. In its defense argument, Google claimed its “mistake” was not illegal. In 2013, the defense was rejected. Despite Google’s claim on the collected data was a “mistake,” investigators discovered that engineers of Google developed the software and intentionally installed it on Street View cars.

The punitive payments will be divided among 22 original plaintiffs, which means additional class members will receive nothing. The remaining money will go to eight consumer protection and data privacy organizations.

Another similar case on the same issue brought by 38 states only resulted in a settlement of $7 million. When being asked about this matter, Google declined to give any comment.