Google will pay Tennessee and 36 other states $7 million and revamp its consumer privacy practices as a result of an agreement filed today by the search engine giant.
Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper said that Tennessee's share is estimated at $133,528 to settle privacy complaints regarding Google's collection of data from unsecured wireless networks nationwide while taking photographs for its Street View service between 2008 and March 2010.
The agreement now bans unauthorized data collection and requires Google train its employees on privacy and launch a nationwide campaign to educate consumers on how to protect their information.
"We are pleased Google recognizes consumers' right to privacy and will no longer collect information during its Street View photography without their permission," Cooper said in a statement today. "I strongly encourage Tennesseans to take more proactive steps to secure their personal wireless Internet connection to avoid any other similar privacy intrusions."
At issue in the case is Google's Street View maps in which the company used cars equipped with antennae and open-source software that the company acknowledged collected network identification information. It then used those that information for other services such as geo-location applications. Google has admitted it simultaneously collected and stored information gathered from nearby home and business wireless networks without permission.