[rawhide]

I read where a guy in Germany asked google just recently whether they were doing this collecting of data, and google strongly denied it. And then google stated they started their own internal investigation, and discovered they were in fact collecting this data.

(I suspect they knew all along the data was being collected, but they figured they had to come clean now, after denying it, because of the legal ramifications of denying it before. The just bought some time between at first denying it, and now disclosing they were indeed collecting it, to come up with a legal response. (and to contact obamma and AG Holder for their help.))

[Paige]

Plausible Deniability? Sorry, I couldn’t resist. :)

[STARWISE]

Germany lashes out at Google for privacy breach

Germany lashes out at Google after company admits privacy breach with Wi-Fi data

~~~~

Germany’s consumer protection minister strongly criticized Google for a widespread privacy breach and insisted Saturday the U.S. Internet giant must cooperate better with data protection authorities.

Google Inc. issued an apology Friday, acknowledging it has been vacuuming up fragments of people’s online activities broadcast over public Wi-Fi networks for the past four years while expanding a mapping feature called “Street View.”

Minister Ilse Aigner said the “alarming incident” showed that Google still lacks an understanding of the need for privacy.

“According to the information available to us so far, Google has for years penetrated private networks, apparently illegally,” her office said in a statement Saturday.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Germany-lashes-out-at-Google-apf-1252720685.html?x=0&.v=1