Google confirms it still has a 'small portion' of Street View WiFi data, apologizes

It has seemed like Google was close to putting its Street View snooping controversy behind it a few times now, but one thing or another keeps bringing it back to the forefront. Today, it's an admission from Google that it hasn't deleted all of the so-called payload data in question after all. That revelation comes in a letter from Google Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleisher to Steve Eckersley, head of enforcement at the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (or ICO), in which Fleisher says that Google is still in possession of a "small portion of payload data collected by our Street View vehicles in the UK." Fleisher adds that Google "apologizes for this error," and says that the data was discovered after an extensive review of its Street View data that it has been conducting in recent months. For its part, the ICO has acknowleged that it received the letter, and notes that the data was supposed to have been deleted in December of 2010, adding that "the fact that some of this information still exists appears to breach the undertaking to the ICO signed by Google in November 2010." You can find both statements in full at the ICO link below.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Internet

Google confirms it still has a 'small portion' of Street View WiFi data, apologizes originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jul 2012 13:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.