The Information Commissioner has issued a press release
announcing the result of the recent Intellectual Property Office
("IPO") investigation into alleged privacy breaches by
Google UK.
The investigation followed the admission by Google that its
Street View vehicles had inadvertently collected personal
information from private internet connections.
Google's Street View facility provides 360-degree
photographs of nearly all public locations across the globe. In
addition to taking these photographs, in many countries - including
the UK - Google's hi-tech Street View vehicles were also
mapping public wi-fi connections as they drove. While this could be
considered a perfectly commendable exercise, the Street View
vehicles' antennae were also connecting with unencrypted
private routers. Furthermore, during the time that the vehicles
were connected with these private routers, the data in transit from
these connections was also collected.
