Google Apologizes for Street View WiFi Blunder in New Zealand

It's been more than half a year since Google revealed that it had, it says inadvertently, collected payload WiFi data with its Street View cars. While some investigations are still undergoing, several have ended the latest being in New Zealand. The authorities found that Google should have been more forthcoming about the type of data it was collecting and that it breached the country's privacy laws when it captured payload data.

Google has now issued an apology in New Zealand. The local privacy commissioner said that she was pleased that Google admitted its mistakes and made steps to repair them as well as ensure that they don't happen again.

However, Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff added that Google needs to prevent this type of mishap and lack of communication in the future.

"It is important that Google makes sure that these mistakes do not keep happening. For technology to be successful, people need to trust it. If they don't trust it, they won't use it," she said in a statement.

Google previously published several steps it took in order to improve its privacy policies internally, including better privacy education for engineers and a mandatory privacy design document for each product.

It now says it welcomes the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner's conclusion and apologizes for collecting the data and for not disclosing it was collecting WiFi location data in the first place.

"We also think we should have had greater transparency around our initial collection of publicly broadcast WiFi network information. We’re sorry for not realizing this sooner," Alan Eustace, Senior VP for Engineering & Research at Google, wrote.

"We have been working with the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner to assist her investigation into our collection of WiFi data. We welcome today’s conclusion of this investigation, and we have committed to working even more closely with the Privacy Commissioner and her office going forward," he added.