> How much data do you think they "accidentally" sniffed and recorded? I'll bet precisely zero bytes, because they are moving goods
I'll bet dollars to donuts they track exactly where their vehicles go, and penalize drivers that exceed a certain deviation from the expected route/timing.
Either way seem like perfectly legal things to do.
Right, also back to that original point: I could totally believe that a 2009 Google would run that project for other reasons than advertising, such as prestige or engineer-driven because they thought it was cool. I mean there are posts here from people who were part of the original project. Today a project like that would be beancounter-driven and only allowed if it had a clear short-term ROI.
Did Street View have a positive ROI over time? I don't know. It certainly helped put Google Maps front and center. Maybe you can think of it as a very successful advertising campaign - instead of blowing millions on SuperBowl ads you blow millions on cars taking pictures of every public road mile.
I'll bet dollars to donuts they track exactly where their vehicles go, and penalize drivers that exceed a certain deviation from the expected route/timing.
Either way seem like perfectly legal things to do.