New Zealand officials have cleared internet search services provider Google of any criminal charges, after it collected data from wireless networks for its 'Street View' mapping service. Earlier in June, the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner called in the police after Google admitted that its cars taking photographs of cities in over 30 countries had inadvertently gathered personal data sent over unsecured wifi systems.
Privacy regulators in Australia, Europe, the US and Canada also launched investigations into data the web giant's camera-equipped cars collected while taking photos of streets and houses.
New Zealand police said Google's actions did not constitute a criminal offence and they had referred the matter back to the Privacy Commissioner. However, the NZ police cyber crime centre has said that the case underlined the need for web users to put in place security measures when using wireless networks.
Concerns in the case centre on Google's collection of so-called 'payload data', unencrypted information sent on wireless networks that are not protected by passwords which can contain personal information, including the content of e-mails. Google said in July that its 'Street View' cars would resume operations in some countries but collect only photos and 3D imagery, not wifi data.
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