Back in 2010 Google admitted to using WIFI receivers installed on their Google "Street View" cars to download data from open WIFI networks. These included places like coffee shops, libraries, ectra. Parts of this "payload" data contained things like passwords, emails, and other data that the general public would have never shared with Google. So what happen when the courts finally ruled on the case yesterday? Almost nothing. Now granted $7 Million isn't nothing, but compare that to hackers that get up to 35 years in jail for one offence of the same exact type, seems a little unbalanced!

“While the $7 million is significant, the importance of this agreement goes beyond financial terms. Consumers have a reasonable expectation of privacy. This agreement recognizes those rights and ensures that Google will not use similar tactics in the future to collect personal information without permission from unsuspecting consumers,” Attorney General Jepsen said.