The Federal Communications Commission has fined Google $25,000 for impeding a U.S. investigation into the data collection scandal surrounding its Street View project, in which the Internet giant allegedly accessed unsecured networks and collected personal information without users’ permission. The FCC said the Mountain View-based company did not cooperate with the investigation and refused to reveal the names of its engineers associated with the project. “Google refused to identify any emplo...

Most online April Fool’s jokes are, to put it as kindly as possible, awful. Of all the companies that try to put creative “pranks” together, however, Google is among the best at managing April Fool’s stunts that are geeky enough to be laughed at in a good way rather than an uncomfortable, “I can’t believe someone thought this would be clever” way. This year, Google cooked up a creative new feature for Google Maps that lets users tour America with 8-bit graphics that w...

A Florida firm has filed a claim alleging that Google and Apple are both infringing on its mapping technology, PaidContent reported on Monday. PanoMap Technologies filed the complaint in an Orlando federal court, stating the use of Google Maps “Street View” feature in the iPad and iPhone violates U.S. Patent No. 6,563,529. The patent covers an “interactive system for displaying detailed view and direction in panoramic images.” The company wants Apple and Google to pay triple damages, asserting t...

Following Google’s recent admission that it accidentally stole passwords, emails and other personal information with its Street View cars, the Federal Trade Commission has decided not to issue any fines. Earlier this week, Google confirmed accusations that its Street View cars — the vehicles Google uses to take Street View images for its popular Google Maps service — inadvertently stole sensitive personal data from various homes with open Wi-Fi networks. Wednesday, the FTC confirmed that a resulting...

Reuters is reporting that search giant Google had an office in Seoul, South Korea raided by police earlier today. The Korean National Police Agency said they “have been investigating Google Korea LLC on suspicion of unauthorized collection and storage of data on unspecified Internet users from Wi-Fi networks.” Google has been collecting data in South Korea since late last year in preparation for the launch of the Street View service. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission, as well as other European ...

Last week, the French National Commission on Computing and Liberty announced that Wi-Fi data sniffed and collected by Google Inc.’s Street View cyborg car contained “fragments” of personal information. This week, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Connecticut Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, “will seek additional information from Google and determine whether laws may have been broken.” The paper goes onto write, “As many as 30 U.S. states could join forces to lo...

Google confirmed last month that while snapping photos of the local flavor, the search giant was also inadvertently capturing packets of data from unsecured routers. Google downplayed the severity of this guffaw by reassuring people that only small, presumably useless, fragments of personal data were collected. Despite Google’s re-assurance, this admission caused a stir amongst privacy groups and prompted several agencies to take a closer look at the data that Google collected. The French National Commi...

Google came clean on its blog yesterday and admitted to accidentally collecting personal data while canvassing positioning data during Street View sweeps. The potentially damaging revelation came after the data protection authority (DPA) in Hamburg, Germany requested Google’s Street view data due to privacy concerns. An internal review of the collected data revealed that the software Google was using to compile and map SSID’s was also recording a portion of the of data that was being transmitted...

After being ousted from the Great North by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada in 2007, Google has been given a reprieve in some Canadian cities. Greater Toronto, Montréal, Metro Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary and other large communities now have Google Street view data available both in the browser and on the iPhone in the Maps application. According to CBC News, Google continued to film some of Canada’s major cities while trying to address the privacy concerns of the Commissioner. Sneaky, sneaky. If you want ...

Hey ladies and gents, the long-awaited iPhone update, which includes Google Maps Street View, is finally here and ready for your downloading pleasure. At 246MB, it’s going to take a little while before you can enjoy all that 2.2 has to offer. New features include, of course, Street View for Google Maps and walking and public transportation directions. Perfect for you city-dwellers. The update also fixes call failures and dropped calls – a definite bonus for those of you who have experiencing a lit...

The smoke has cleared, the dust has settled and T-Mobile’s G1 release event is history. We gave you plenty of live blogging action despite the fact our brand new Dell Latitude XT tried as hard as it could to screw the pooch. Then we gave you a solid hands-on gallery to feast your eyes on. Now it’s time for the wrap up; our thoughts about the HTC G1. First and foremost, don’t be fooled. In the leaked images and even in some of our gallery shots the G1 looks a bit cheap and plasticky. Seriousl...