Google is halting the collection of WiFi network information for its controversial “Street View” mapping service after admitting it mistakenly gathered personal data sent over unsecured systems.
The Internet giant had insisted previously that it was only collecting WiFi network names and addresses with the Street View cars that have been cruising cities around the world taking photographs for the Google Maps service.
“It’s now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open [ie, non-password-protected] WiFi networks,” Alan Eustace, Google senior vice president for engineering and research, said in a blog post on Friday.
Eustace said Google was “profoundly sorry for this error,” which is likely to intensify criticism of Street View by privacy advocates and officials.
The Mountain View, California-based Google said it would end the collection of WiFi network information entirely by the Street View cars, which have been used in more than 30 nations, and was taking steps to delete the private data.
Street View, which is available for the US and certain other countries, allows users to view panoramic street scenes on Google Maps and “walk” through cities such as New York, Paris or Hong Kong.
WiFi network information allows Google to build location features into mobile versions of Street View such as directions or nearby restaurants. The collection of WiFi network information by Street View, which began in 2006, has already come in for criticism, particularly in Germany. Eustace said a coding error was responsible for the collection of personal data sent by people over unsecured WiFi networks.
Google did not specify what data was gathered, but it could potentially include e-mails or details about which Web sites a person had visited, for example.
Eustace said Google discovered that personal data had been swept up a week ago following a request to audit WiFi data from the Data Protection Authority in Hamburg, Germany.
“As soon as we became aware of this problem, we grounded our Street View cars and segregated the data on our network, which we then disconnected to make it inaccessible,” he said.
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