It’s hard to argue against the fact that everyone enjoys using Google ‘Street View’ maps either to view houses, streets, and physical landmarks. Even with all the benefits of Google Street View and its growing popularity, now comes surprising allegations of a controversy linked with Google Street View and its involvement in acquiring peoples private data.

Recently Google has drawn negative attention towards itself due to the news of attaining private information from residents of over 30 countries; Google was able to access confidential information, such as emails, usernames, passwords, and medical records from residents who had unprotected wireless networks.  Not only is attaining private data from people all over the world unethical and unjustifiable, but to make matters worse although Google has apologized for snooping and promised to stop collecting data, the company still feels as though they have not done anything illegal.  

Although Google is a massive company that provides a very useful network, this by no means suggests that Google has the right to collect and save persona data. To have all of the data from 2008-2010 and not immediately dispose of this information is a completely unethical business decision, and is a basic violation of human privacy. Why Google considers itself to be above the law is a question the company will be addressing in court, and only time will tell whether consequences will be awarded.