Connecticut is getting $521,000 as the lion’s share of a $7 million multi-state settlement with search-engine giant Google Inc. for alleged privacy violations from its online “Street View” feature.
State Attorney General George Jepsen announced Tuesday the Silicon Valley, Calif., media giant agreed to other sanctions, including tutoring its employees on privacy issues.
The settlement covers 38 states and Washington D.C.
As lead state, Connecticut’s share of the settlement is $520,823, Jepsen said.
“While the $7 million is significant, the importance of this agreement goes beyond financial terms,” he said. “Consumers have a reasonable expectation of privacy. This agreement recognizes those rights and ensures that Google will not use similar tactics in the future to collect personal information without permission from unsuspecting consumers,”
The agreement also requires Google to: engage in a comprehensive employee education program about the privacy or confidentiality of user data; to sponsor a nationwide public service campaign to help educate consumers about securing their wireless networks and protecting personal information; and to continue to secure, and eventually destroy, the data collected and stored by its Street View vehicles nationwide between 2008 and March 2010. Google also collected similar data around the world.
