Google admits further Street View

Google admits further Street View privacy failures

Google has admitted it by chance captured entire emails and passwords from wireless networks in people’s houses when it was collecting pictures for its controversial Street View service.

The search engine 1st said in May it had mistakenly collected private information when its Street View cars were gathering up panoramic images, but said at the time the data was only “fragmentary” because the cars were moving.

However after investigations by “a number” of external regulators, Google admitted some whole e-mails, passwords and web addresses had also been picked up.

“We want to delete this data as soon as possible, and I would like to apologize again for the fact that we collected it in the 1st place,” Alan Eustace, vice president of engineering and research at Google, said in a blog post. “We're mortified by what happened.”

The California-based company will now improve its privacy controls, after a series of complaints from nations including Germany and Canada. From Dec, Google will train all staff in information security and privacy. Training for engineers will have a new focus on “the responsible collection, use and handling of data,” Mr Eustace said.

The company has also promoted its lead engineer working on privacy, Alma Whitten, to director of privacy in engineering and product management, and all new projects will have a component which addresses possible privacy issues.

Germany, Austria, Italy and France are among the countries investigating whether their citizens’ privacy has been breached by Google. The company said in June it had canceled private wireless data mistakenly collected in Austria, Denmark and Ireland.