Connecticut AG Opts For Street View Settlement, Without Seeing the Data 93
theodp writes "Verifying Google's data snare is crucial to assessing a penalty and assuring no repeat,' said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal last December in response to Google's 'accidental' collection of payload data from WiFi networks. 'We will fight to compel Google to come clean-granting my office access to improperly collected materials and protecting confidentiality, as the company has done in Canada and elsewhere.' That was then. Luckily for Google, there's a new AG in town, and Blumenthal successor George Jepsen said Friday that his office will enter into settlement negotiations with the company without reviewing the pilfered data, which Google has steadfastly refused to share with it. 'This is a good result for the people of Connecticut,' Jepsen said in a statement. A separate Jepsen press release suggested some of the blame for the privacy offenses laid with Google's victims, who were advised to 'turn off your wireless network when you know you won't use it' to thwart those who 'may be watching your Internet activity without your knowledge."
Could it be... (Score:2, Interesting)
That Then-AG Blumenthal was pandering to the masses as part of his campaign for the US Senate?
No, that couldn't be it - kinda like he had a really, really good reason for going after legally earned bonus/balloon payments for AIG employees - despite the fact he couldn't cite any law that justified his attempts. None. When grilled on one talk show on the justification, he had nothing, sputtering about a responsibility to see the Gov't money was well-spent (despite the fact that the bonus/balloon payments were offered by the Gov't to key AIG employees to stay with the firm and see it through recovery, helping to keep stability in the market).
Blumenthal is a political hack, plain and simple.
It's interesting that only now, after a year+ of saber-rattling by politicians does it occur to anyone in Gov't to suggest people should make efforts to protect their home computers/Internet connections.