Google Says It Collected Private Data by Mistake RT @nytimes

In Amsterdam, a Google Street View camera takes images. The cars also gathered some private data sent over Wi-Fi networks.

Google said on Friday that for more than three years it had inadvertently collected snippets of private information that people send over unencrypted wireless networks.

The admission, made in an official blog post by Alan Eustace, Google’s engineering chief, comes a month after regulators in Europe started asking the search giant pointed questions about Street View, the layer of real-world photographs accessible from Google Maps. Regulators wanted to know what data Google collected as its camera-laden cars methodically trolled through neighborhoods, and what Google did with that data.

Google’s Street View misstep adds to the widespread anxiety about privacy in the digital age and the apparent willingness of Silicon Valley engineers to collect people’s private data without permission.

Facebook is currently engaged in a heated debate with its 400 million members about its shifting privacy guidelines, while Google has had to contend with other privacy missteps, like the introduction of its Buzz social network earlier this year that publicly exposed people’s closest e-mail contacts without permission.

Google appears to have acted quickly after questions were raised by the European regulators. Two weeks ago, Google tried to address their questions and criticism in a blog post. It said it did collect certain kinds of data around the world that identify Wi-Fi networks to help improve its mapping products. The information on wireless networks can be used for location-based advertising services for mobile phones, which can sometime be pinpointed via a wireless network even if they lack a GPS chip.

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