State AG asks Google about personal data collection

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster sent a letter to Internet search provider Google on Friday, asking the company to provide details about personal information the company collected from Missouri residents for its Google Street View service.

Google Street offers visitors the ability to see street level views of searched addresses, but according to a news release from Koster's office, recent media reports and admissions from Google indicate that the company may have accessed residents' communications through public Wi-Fi networks in its data collection efforts.

According to a report Friday in InformationWeek, "the team responsible for the computer program used to collect Street View images had included another Google engineer's experimental code in its application, unaware of everything the code could do, (including) grabbing data off of unprotected WiFi networks."  

The letter Koster sent asks Google to explain the nature of the data it collected in Missouri, how the data was used, to whom it was disclosed, and the protections it had it place to ensure it was not improperly utilized. The letter also asked Google to preserve all the data collected from Missouri residents until the company has answered the state's questions, and until appropriate regulatory agencies have investigated the situation, according to the release.

“I am concerned at the possibility that Missourians’ privacy could have been violated by Google’s tactics for gathering information,” Koster said in the release. “We expect Google to provide information to us so we can ascertain whether there is any threat to Missourians’ private information, and take action if necessary to protect it.”[[In-content Ad]]