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Australia Drops Second Google Investigation
joshgnosis writes "The Australian Privacy Commissioner has decided against investigating Google a second time over the collection of Wi-Fi payload data in Google's Street View cars. Despite a damning FCC report released last month claiming that senior manager within Google were aware that a 'rogue' engineer was working on the project on the side, he said a second investigation wouldn't yield any new results. 'I have decided not to open another investigation into Google Street View,' he said in a statement. 'In reaching this decision, I have considered the FCC's report and don't consider that a new investigation would reveal any information that would change our original finding.'"
Or maybe:
'In reaching this decision, I have considered the lack of additional campaign contributions by Microsoft, and don't consider that a new investigation would reveal any information that would change our original finding.'"
Seriously, though, is there anyone here who really thinks this investigation deserves to go around a second time, based on the technical merits? We're talking about going around logging stuff that is being broadcast in the clear, unencrypted, and no more than a few seconds at any location. I know it's important to anti-Googlers because it's pretty much the closest the company has come so far to being evil, but it's kind of a lame complaint when you compare it to what most other tech companies are doing these days (Microsoft and Apple funding patent trolls, Facebook trying to ratchet down privacy protections, most tech companies forcing people to give up legal rights via EULA, etc). Is this seriously the worst thing that can be said about Google? If it is, they've got to be the most ethically-run company on the planet.
Why bother with an invasion of privacy case when they can go for the bigger fish? They are about to go after Google for tax evasion - a few politicians were (rightly) outraged when it became public knowledge that Google only paid $74k in tax on the multiple billions which Australian people and companies paid to them for services provided in Australia.
... wait, what?
They are about to go after Google for tax evasion - a few politicians were (rightly) outraged when it became public knowledge that Google only paid $74k in tax on the multiple billions which Australian people and companies paid to them for services provided in Australia.
Multiple billions?
Try about one.
Because GP (and you) have missed the part where they've already went after Google's wifi collection and don't think they'll get anything new from that case. Now Google's tax practices, we'll have to see...
Google only paid $74k in tax on the multiple billions which Australian people and companies paid to them for services provided in Australia.
That is a function of the tax laws. The only reliable way to generate tax revenue on services provided by a foreign company is to charge a goods and services tax on purchases of those services. If the GST was not included in those figures, they are misleading. If the GST applied and was not collected, it should have been. If the GST does not apply, perhaps the powers that be should think about changing that.
It is unreasonable to expect to collect corporate income taxes from corporations that are not actually domiciled in the taxing entity. Legally speaking, it is essentially impossible. Tariffs and GSTs are about the only options.
Look at these slap on the wrist penalties:
Don't get excited about the financial compensation. That is only if you have suffered economic loss and the employee who did it doesn't have to pay a cent.
http://www.caslon.com.au/privacyguide3.htm
http://www.privacy.gov.au/complaints/outcomes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy_in_Australian_law
"The only reliable way to generate tax revenue on services provided by a foreign company"
We're talking about revenue to and taxes paid entirely by Google Australia.
Thats the Jedi trick, the elephant in the room.
The diligent engineer did know what he was doing and did pass on his issues up the ladder. Nothing was done.
http://digitaljournal.com/article/324002
"This private data would then âoebe analyzed offline for use in other initiatives,â like researching how well Googleâ(TM)s other services are used, the document said."
http://www.dailytech.com/FCC+Google+Knowingly+Used+Street+View+Cars+to+Snoop+on+Emails+Texts/article24574.htm has more
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
I'm sick of all the bloody money the Government blows on royal commissions and investigation of this sort.
They generate hugely expensive, massive documents that no one reads or really gives a damn about in the end, and are basically a way for politicians to say "hey we are doing something about it" without actually doing anything about it.
At the end of the day, who really gives a shit if your wifi connection has been tagged and a bit of data sniffed? if you care that much about it, secure it properly in the first place, reduce your signal strength so you don't overspill your boundary too much, or just run wired instead.
I am glad that this commissioner has seen that another investigation is the complete waste of time it really is - and has instead focused on getting the right laws in place (which they now are). Google admitted wrong, apologised, smacked down the engineer responsible, and paid the fine. End of story.
Can we move on now?
RTFS again. There was an ethically questionable engineer at Google who was responsible for collecting and retaining the unnecessary data. If memory serves, he wanted to do statistical analysis on the passwords he was collecting. Eventually, Google fessed up to it, even though they could have just covered it up and no one would ever have known. The only possible question is why his superiors took so long to deal with the problem once they knew about it, and my guess would be that they wanted to give him a chance to clean up his act before sacking him. He didn't, so they did.
In short, they're squeaky-clean on this issue, and any efforts to get it investigated further are unjustifiable.
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