Google hits trouble down -under

Google Hits Trouble Down Under
Google’s StreetView team appear to have landed the organisation in hot water with the Australian Authorities recently, with police there having been ordered to investigate a possible privacy breach that occurred during the taking of its famous StreetView 360-degree photos. The allegation centred on the issue that personal data had been collected from unencrypted Wi-Fi services.
It turns out that this allegation was short-lived, as Google subsequently (and apologetically) admitted doing so, claiming that it had been done “in error”.
This begs a (to us) fairly obvious question, then; how does one “accidentally” or “erroneously” collect personal information from unencrypted Wi-Fi sources? We have all been, we are sure, in an area with a Wi-Fi device that has found unencrypted sources, but don’t we have to physically, consciously, attempt to connect and then infiltrate? We don’t know of any device, from any manufacturer, that automatically connects to such sources and then, just as automatically, collects personal data! When we consider that the StreetView team was, ostensibly, simply taking pictures, the question is then begged on a substantially higher level.
We are not asserting, here, that Google has NOT collected the data in error, but do believe that the firm needs to be rather more forthcoming in explaining how this happened, whether it happened in any other countries, and also how and why it will never happen again.
The problem of perception is hugely exacerbated by the fact that Google is a trader of information, and has admitted wrongly collecting, wait for it, information. We would have thought that the firm would be going to great pains to provide answers and assurances in order that its reputation is protected, as well the personal data of its potential customers.

Mark Warren
Nemark IT Support