1. When did Google Street View cars begin collecting information, which includes information from wireless internet connections inside people's homes?

2. In how many countries has Google Streets been collecting information?

3. a) What type of information do internet security experts say Google probably collected?
b) How was Google able to collect this information, according to Steve Gibson, president of an internet security company?

4. How is Google reacting, now that their invasion of individuals' privacy has been exposed?

5. From paragraph 9 of the article: "Google said the collection of data was a simple mistake resulting from a piece of computer code that was accidentally included from an experimental project. Google said it became aware of the mistake in the past week, shortly after telling a German regulator that it was not collecting such information."

A Financial Times article states that "[while] tak[ing] pictures for the group's imaging services, [Google] had been at the same time using the cars to assemble a database of electronic WiFi addresses intended to improve the functioning of its maps and other location services. Google said the project leaders ignored that the vehicles were also taking in snippets of activity on the WiFi networks."

A Yahoo News article reported that Alan Eustace, Google senior vice president for engineering and research, said in a blog post "It's now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (ie non-password-protected) WiFi networks" and that Google is "profoundly sorry for this error."

a) What do you think of Google's claim that gathering the private information was "a mistake"?
b) Ask a parent the same question.