European privacy regulators and advocates reacted angrily after Internet search services provider Google Inc. recently admitted that it had, since 2006, systematically collected private data while compiling its Street View photo archive. Under pressure from European officials, Google recently acknowledged that it had collected snippets of private data worldwide.
In a blog post on its Website, Google has said that the information was sent over unencrypted residential wireless networks as Google's Street View cars with mounted recording equipment passed by. The company also said that the data collection that took place in all the countries where Street View had been catalogued was unintentional and happened due to programming error. Google has apologised for the error. The company assured that the information has not been used and would be deleted as per regulations.
German minister for food, agriculture and consumer protection, Ilse Aigner, has demanded a full accounting after Google revealed that the data collection could include the websites viewed by individuals or the content of their e-mails. According to the German minister, this was a violation of privacy law.
Johannes Caspar, the data protection supervisor for Hamburg, who is leading the German government's dealings with Google on the issue, said the company's disclosure of illegal data collection would be looked into by a panel of European national data protection chiefs that advises the European Commission. He however declined to speculate the action European officials could take.
The improper collection of data came to light after German data protection officials asked Google, two weeks ago, to detail the information it had collected from household wireless local area networks.
Despite its efforts to address the situation, Google may reportedly face an uphill battle in Germany overcoming skepticism about its intentions. Till Steffen, the justice senator for the city-state of Hamburg, has introduced a bill in the German Parliament that would fine Google for displaying personal property in Street View without the consent of owners. The bill, introduced in the upper house of the German Parliament, would fine Google $62,500, or 50,000 euros, for each time it failed to remove the personal property of a citizen who requested to be exempted from Street View.
Google has faced a series of legal entanglements over privacy issues in Europe. Earlier, in April 2010, data protection regulators from eight European countries, New Zealand and Israel sent a joint letter to Google criticising the company's social networking service, Buzz, which reportedly publicised the connections of some users without their permission. This latest episode could further complicate Google's business in the region.
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