Last week Google made a startling confession that they had been inadvertently collecting private data from unsecured home WiFi Networks through the Street View car. According to the NY Times the search giant is under pressure from a German regulator to turn over a hard drive of the data collected while in Germany or face legal action.
A data protection supervisor for the city-state of Hamburg, Johannes Caspar stated that Google had until May 26 to hand over a hard drive of the stolen data that had been picked up in Germany or face legal action.
Through a spokesperson Google reiterated the stance it had taken on the companies blog, in that they will destroy any stolen WLAN data but will not hand over a hard drive. The European justice commissioner, Viviane Reding stated “It is not acceptable that a company operating in the E.U. does not respect E.U. Rules.”
Google has taken steps to ensure that all stolen WLAN data is being disposed of properly. They are currently working with the Data Protection Authorities (DPA) in various countries, and are even going so far as involving a third party to be witnesses of proper disposal. Will that be enough for German authorities? Time will tell.
Google has stated the cause of the the collection of private WLAN data was an engineering flaw.
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