Privacy watchdog reopens Google Street View probe

The UK's privacy watchdog is to look again at a massive privacy breach committed by Google when it downloaded data from unsecured personal wi-fi systems while it was photographing Britain's roads for its Street View application.

The Information Commissioner's Office was spurred into action after criticism that its counterparts in other countries such as Canada had found against Google - and by an apology from the search giant itself.  

In a post on its website, civil liberties group Big Brother Watch said: "Canada's Privacy Commissioner has ruled that Google violated the privacy of thousands of Canadians when it inadvertently collected personal information about them with its Street View mapping cars.
 
"Needless to say, that's better than our own ICO managed. The UK's ICO said that there wasn't anything useable or of value in the material Google hoovered up. Really? I wonder why the Canadians disagreed?"
 
That was last week. Today, the ICO belatedly announced that it would be re-investigating the details collected in the UK after Alan Eustace, Google's vice-president of engineering and research, admitted the company was "mortified" by the mistake.
 
"In some instances entire emails and URLs were captured, as well as passwords. We want to delete this data as soon as possible, and I would like to apologise again for the fact that we collected it in the first place. We are mortified by what happened," said Eustace.
 
Around 30 countries are thought to have been affected by the privacy breach with concurrent investigations running in South Korea, Canada and the US.
 
While the Australian Communications minister Stephen Conroy decried it as the "single greatest breach in the history of privacy" his British opposite numbers have been rather more passive in their approach, saying they will "await the findings of the investigations carried out by our international counterparts".
 
A spokesman for the ICO told the Guardian at the weekend: "Now that these findings are starting to emerge, we understand that Google has accepted that in some instances entire URLs and emails have been captured.
 
"We will be making enquires to see whether this information relates to the data inadvertently captured in the UK, before deciding on the necessary course of action, including a consideration of the need to use our enforcement powers."
 
Google could face fines of up to £500,000 if they are found to be guilty of breaking privacy rules. ·