---
title: "Google to Delete Private Data Captured by Street View Cars"
description: "A decade after Google was caught wiretapping unencrypted WiFi networks with its Street View cars, a court ordered the stolen data deleted."
date: "2019-07-24"
modified: "2019-07-24"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-delete-private-data-street-view"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
  - "Cybersecurity"
  - "Data Privacy"
  - "Future Society"
  - "Google"
tags:
  - "Google"
  - "privacy"
  - "street view"
  - "the digest"
---

# Google to Delete Private Data Captured by Street View Cars

![A decade after Google was caught wiretapping unencrypted WiFi networks with its Street View cars, a court ordered the stolen data deleted.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/google-delete-private-data-street-view1.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Shutterstock/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Mass Surveillance

It used to be that while Google's "Street View" cars [zipped around roads](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/gsv-google-street-view-public-health>) and took photos to add into Google Maps, they also gathered data from private WiFi networks as they drove.

Google just settled in a decade-old class-action lawsuit about the practice, [according to *Gizmodo*](<https://gizmodo.com/heres-your-reminder-that-google-has-always-been-evil-1836628967>). The search giant agreed to pay a minor $13 million fine — and to delete the treasure trove of information its cars gathered from unencrypted networks.

## Playing Dumb

In a rejected defense argument, Google claimed that the wiretapping, which happened in over 30 countries between 2007 and 2010, was all a big accident, per *Gizmodo*.

But in 2013, a district court from northern California [ruled against Google](<http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/general/2013/09/11/11-17483_opinion.pdf>), which led to the new settlement. Court documents revealed that Google engineers deliberately wrote and deployed the code that intercepted the activity on those WiFi networks.

## Chump Change

Combined with another suit, Google is only paying out $20 million for the surveillance, *Gizmodo* reports — a tiny sum for a Silicon Valley giant.

A small number of plaintiffs will split the cash along with several consumer protection organizations, so maybe at least we'll all find ourselves a little more secure down the road.

**READ MORE:** [Here's Your Reminder That Google Has Always Been Evil](<https://gizmodo.com/heres-your-reminder-that-google-has-always-been-evil-1836628967>) \[*Gizmodo*\]

**More on Street View:** *[Google’s Newest AI is Turning Street View Images into Landscape Art](<https://futurism.com/googles-newest-ai-is-turning-street-view-images-into-landscape-art>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)