A multistate investigation wants to know how much personal and therefore confidential information Google gathered when it went around collecting "street views" for its location-based services. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is spearheading the effort to look into "Google's deeply disturbing invasion of personal privacy."
The investigation follows Google's confession that for years it accidentally collected personal data which could have included e-mail messages and passwords sent by consumers over wireless networks, as it crisscrossed the world photographing street scenes.
Blumenthal, to an extent, is piling on since Google is already part of an informal FTC investigation and the target of multiple class action and government legal actions overseas.
A Google spokeswoman said that the data collecting process was "a mistake" but that the company believes "we did nothing illegal."
Still, it begs the question of whether Google's next campaign will be, "Smile, you're on Google TV."
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