Remember a few years ago when Google got itself in that whole little Street-View-cars-collecting-personal-Wi-Fi-network-data debacle? Well, it looks like the case is finally being settled, and it’s not just the people who had their privacy stripped before their very eyes that are benefiting; everyone gets a piece of the pie!
Because in addition to being fined $US7 million (the same amount literally burned every week after management has their giant-pool-of-money bath), Google is being forced to teach everyone about a little something they like to call “passwords”.
In order to prevent the damage done by the cars snooping on other people’s networks — which they claimed was done under the instruction of a rogue engineer — from ever happening again, Google’s first step will be to start an annual “privacy week event” for its employees. Assumed activities will include games such as “Should I Take a Picture of This Naked Woman,” “Should I Take a Picture of This Murder” and “Should I Collect Private Data From This Civilian’s Wi-Fi Network“. In addition to this, the New York Times notes:
It also must make privacy certification programs available to select employees, provide refresher training for its lawyers overseeing new products and train its employees who deal with privacy matters.
But it only gets better. Google’s next task will be to help us, the people, learn how to protect our data from those rapscallion engineers of theirs with a YouTube video that explains how to use “passwords” and “encrypt data”. Technically, nothing Google did was illegal, but it did admit a privacy violation. And, for some people, these videos will prove very necessary. Even if it doesn’t sink in the first time, they’ll have plenty of opportunity to watch again — since Google will have to promote the video in a daily online ad for the next two years. [New York Times via Forbes]