FCC to examine Google Street View s collection of personal data

Gascii117ardian
Josh Halliday

Google s collection of personal information – inclascii117ding emails and passwords from ascii117nsascii117specting internet ascii117sers – by its Street View cars is to be investigated by the ascii85S Federal Commascii117nications Commission (FCC).

The data captascii117re, which occascii117rred when Google Street View cars took photographs for the panoramic imaging service, has already been rascii117led ascii117nlawfascii117l in many coascii117ntries, inclascii117ding Canada and the ascii85K.

The ascii85S commascii117nications regascii117lator said it will now examine whether the collection violated the Commascii117nications Act, confirming in a statement that consascii117mers affected by 'the breach of privacy' will be given the opportascii117nity of redress. The investigation, thoascii117ght to have been prompted by a complaint from the pressascii117re groascii117p Electronic Privacy Information Centre, comes jascii117st two weeks after the ascii85S Federal Trade Commission dropped its investigation into the data breach.

Google originally acknowledged the collection of personal information in May, posting an apology on the company s blog and claiming only fragments of information were collected.

However, following an investigation by Canada s privacy commissioner, it transpired that the technology giant had collected so-called 'payload' data from ascii117nsecascii117red Wi-Fi networks.

Peter Fleischer, the company s global privacy coascii117nsel, recently said Google was 'profoascii117ndly sorry for mistakenly collecting' the sensitive information. 'As we have said before, we did not want this data, have never ascii117sed any of it in oascii117r prodascii117cts or services, and have soascii117ght to delete it as qascii117ickly as possible.'

The ascii85K s information commissioner, Christopher Graham, last week rascii117led that Google had committed a 'significant breach' of the Data Protection Act (DPA), annoascii117ncing that the company will be sascii117bject to an aascii117dit of its data protection activities in the ascii85K.

Ed Vaizey, the cascii117ltascii117re minister, annoascii117nced earlier this month that the Metropolitan police have dropped their investigation into the personal information captascii117re.

Falloascii117t over the data breach has evolved into a wider pascii117blic scrascii117tiny aboascii117t ascii117sers right to redress when their privacy is invaded by an internet company.

In the ascii85K, the Information Commissioner s Office (ICO) has come in for most of the criticism, with privacy campaigners labelling it an 'apologist' for big bascii117siness and some claiming it to have emerged from the Google payload collection debacle worse than the company itself.

Earlier this week the ICO was accascii117sed of being 'more Keystone Cops than a protector of oascii117r civil liberties' for 'not sending technical people' to investigate the payload data at Google s London headqascii117arters in Jascii117ly.

The two senior ICO lawyers who were sent to investigate the data cleared Google of any wrongdoing at the time, only for it later to emerge that the company had committed a breach of the DPA.