Connecticut’s Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, recently sent a letter to Google Inc. demanding to know whether the Internet company may have collected any personal data from Connecticut residents via their wireless networks when developing its Street View feature. In its response, Google acknowledged that it had mistakenly collected the data over public Wi-Fi networks in the state of Connecticut.

Google collected the information when developing its Street View service. The feature, which provides images from neighborhoods around the world, was created by compiling information that had been collected during “drive-by data sweeps” of communities across the world. The sweeps appear to have also collected data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks used by residents and businesses.

In its response, Google admitted that it had mistakenly collected data over public Wi-Fi networks in the state of Connecticut.

"This information does not and was not used to identify any specific individual or household," John C. Burchette, director of state policy for Google, said in the letter to Blumenthal's office. "In addition, we had mistakenly included code in our software that collected payload data (information send over the network) from encrypted networks and never used any payload data in any Google product or service."

Blumenthal is now considering whether Google’s admission constitutes a violation of its state’s privacy laws. For example, Connecticut law requires businesses in possession of personal information to safeguard such data, computer files and documents containing such information from misuse by third parties. Further, the law requires businesses that collect Social Security numbers to create and publish or publicly display a privacy protection policy designed to protect the confidentiality, disclosure, and access to Social Security numbers. C.G.S.A. § 42-471. If Google was collecting payload data that included social security numbers – even inadvertently – it may have violated this law.

Blumenthal is the latest law enforcement official to order Google to give a detailed accounting of the information its Street View cars. Last week, the Attorney General in Missouri, Chris Koster fired off a similar letter, demanding that Google provide his office with any and all personal data that the Internet company may have collected from Missouri residents via their wireless networks. These actions follow similar investigations in France, Germany, Spain, Canada and Australia, where officials have ordered the search giant to be more forthcoming about the privacy violation.

Arent Fox is tracking this issue. For more questions, please contact Anthony V. Lupo or Sarah Bruno.

Anthony V. Lupo
lupo.anthony@arentfox.com
202.857.6353

Sarah L. Bruno
bruno.sarah@arentfox.com
202.775.5760