A few weeks back, Google admitted that they had accidentally been scooping up bits of people’s online activities. The fragments were picked up while cars drove around in neighborhoods to photograph areas to use as part of Google’s “street view” maps. Google admitted that they discovered nearly 600GBs of data had been collected in over 30 countries, and the search giant was going to consult with privacy advocates on the best way to destroy the data.
Business Insider is reporting that before that could happen, residents of Oregon and Washington filed a class action lawsuit over privacy violations, and requested a restraining order so the data could be used as evidence in any potential legal proceedings.
Oregon and Washington are not the only ones to not see the humor in Google’s gaff. The German government demanded that Google turn over all illegally collected data. Google missed the deadline issued, further infuriating the Germans who were already incensed at the privacy breach.
Google has also been ordered to copy the data and hand it over to the Federal District Court of Oregon.
A full copy of the restraining order can be found at Scribd.com.
