Illinois attorney general is investigating Google

Illinois attorney general is investigating Google
By Wailin Wong
Copyright © 2010, Chicago Tribune
Published on June 16, 2010 5:56 PM
http://www.chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2010/06/attorney-general-madigan-is-investigating-google.html


Illinois has joined a list of governments in the U.S. and worldwide that are probing Google's data collection for the search giant's Street View service.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said Wednesday her office is investigating whether the California-based company gathered personal information from state residents. Street View is used in Google Maps and Google Earth to show photos at the street level, displaying pictures taken by special camera equipment mounted on cars and other vehicles.

The controversy over Street View arose last month, when Google admitted to inadvertently capturing and storing bits of private information sent over unencrypted WiFi networks. This "payload data," as the information is called, can include e-mails, passwords and browsing activity.
"It is disturbing that Google has been collecting this data since 2007," Madigan said in a statement. "We have asked Google to explain in detail exactly what information it has collected and what it is doing with the information."

Madigan said she and her counterpart in Massachusetts, Martha Coakley, sent a joint letter to Google last week asking the company for information on the payload data it collected in those two states. Representatives of Madigan's office also participated in a conference call among about 30 attorneys general last week about the issue.

Authorities in several countries, including Australia and France, are also investigating Google over its Street View data collection. Google has stopped its Street View vehicles from gathering any type of WiFi network data and is continuing to work with authorities to respond to concerns. The company also asked an independent firm to study the issue and write a report, which was submitted to data protection authorities last week.