ICO considers Google inadvertent data collection

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued a statement, following the admission from Google that its Street View camera cars inadvertently collected data from Wi-Fi networks.

Google is currently being investigated for the matter by a number of countries, including Australia, Germany, and more recently the United States.

The ICO confirmed it had visited Google’s premises to evaluate samples of data the company mistakenly collected, but that “The information we saw does not include meaningful personal details that could be linked to an identifiable person. As we have only seen samples of the records collected in the UK we recognise that other data protection authorities conducting a detailed analysis of all the payload data collected in their jurisdictions may nevertheless find samples of information which can be linked to identifiable individuals.”

“However, on the basis of the samples we saw we are satisfied so far that it is unlikely that Google will have captured significant amounts of personal data,” an ICO spokesperson said. “There is also no evidence as yet that the data captured by Google has caused or could cause any individual detriment.”

Despite this, the ICO acknowledged the data collection was wrong, and commented, “We will be alerting Privacy International and others who have complained to us of our position. The Information Commissioner is taking a responsible and proportionate approach to this case.”

The ICO spokesperson said, “However, we remain vigilant and will be reviewing any relevant findings and evidence from our international counterparts’ investigations.”