The Google streetcars that have been roaming the corners of your neighbourhood have accidentally retrieved some of your personal information. Such data like your “passwords, email and medical records, among other data, from residents’ WiFi networks.”
These specially equipped cars slowly drive by block by block recording street signs, names, intersections, but most importantly, your personal information. Google did not have intentions to purposely retrieve your personal data, but the purpose was to improve location services based on the individual household’s local area connection (LAN). Upon tampering with household connections, emails with your loved ones or this year’s medical check-up records could have been copied by Google.
Google has been fined by The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) a total amount of $25,000 for this act. (http://business-ethics.com/2012/04/17/1401-why-the-fcc-fined-google-just-68-seconds-in-profits/) The FCC states that this fine is already ramped up from the amount of $12,000. Doubling the fine seems reasonable for a super corporation like Google, however, with a $225.94 billion market capital, Google will only have to shut its profit doors for 68 seconds to compensate for the FCC fine. This fine will not be sufficient to ring a bell in Google’s executive team.
