Google is set to wipe all the information it unintentionally gathered while shooting the photographs for the UK’s Google Street View. Regarding the matter, the UK’s deputy information commissioner David Smith said that if Google does this, they will escape any fines for their offence and will avoid further enquiry on the matter. Even though the data which Google admitted they recieved was collected accidentally through unprotected wireless hotspots, Smith seemed pretty sure in saying that none of the data “had fallen into the wrong hands”.
While speaking to the BBC, Smith said that “We'd have had to find that there was substantial damage or distress to individuals from the collection of snippets of e-mails, URLs and passwords” so that they can “meet [the] criteria for a penalty to be imposed”. It seems however that “no significant breach” was discovered by Smith’s department which recieved some criticism and the ruling only changed after Canadian investigators had claimed that privacy laws had been seriously violated.
Smith admitted that his department “spent less time searching than other did” on the matter, also adding that “if we had searched for days and days we would have found more”. Although this seems like incredibly poor behaviour, it seemed the department was intending to see how other countries dealt with the data, in an attempt to aid what the UK should do about the problem. As well as the data wipe, (which will hopefully be regulated in one way or another) Google has agreed to offer privacy training to all their staff in an attempt to avoid such a thing in the future. It seems for now though, Google have gotten out of this pretty lightly.
Via: Slash Gear
One thought on “Google Set To Wipe Accidental Information Gathered By Street View Cars”
They captured the data nearly 2 years ago, I’m sure it’s been fully processed and all the info they require has been already taken out. Now they decide they’ll delete it and the company won’t be pursued.
Maybe all those paedos should take note, seems it’s ok to download illegal stuff as long as you delete it all when you get caught.