Google privacy investigation reopened
An investigation into the circumstances surrounding Google’s interception of emails and passwords during filming for its Street View project has been reopened amidst claims that the search giant was deliberately collecting personal data.
In November 2010 the technology firm agreed to delete all the appropriated information after informing the Information Commissioner that the data had been gathered mistakenly.
A subsequent US investigation found however that the data was retrieved by software written specifically for that purpose, prompting the ICO to dust off their own files.
Amongst the data illicitly obtained were medical listings, legal infractions, and complete email messages were also collected, with email headings, IP addresses, names, usernames, passwords and telephone numbers.
In a letter to Google Steve Eckersley, the ICO’s head of enforcement wrote: “It therefore seems likely that such information was deliberately captured by GSV (Google Street View) operations conducted in the UK.”
The watchdog is calling for Google to provide full details of what data was collected and why this was not included in the sample of information supplied to the original investigation. It is also requesting copies of the original software design document to confirm whether appropriate measures were taken to comply with the Data Protection Act.