Google Found Guilty of Privacy Breach in the UK Over Street View

UK's Information Commissioner has found Google guilty of breaching the British Data Protection Act with its Street View cars which collected personal data from open WiFi networks. The government, however, will not issue any penalties, but it will request a written guarantee from Google that this won't happen again as well as an audit of the company's system.

"The Commissioner has concluded that there was a significant breach of the Data Protection Act when Google Street View cars collected payload data as part of their wi-fi mapping exercise in the UK," the Information Commission Office (ICO) said in a statement.

The ICO had initially found Google not guilty of any privacy breach. The Commissioner's office had reviewed the data Google collected at the company's headquarters.

Based on the inspection, the conclusion was that the data was unlikely to contain any significant private data and was too fragmented to be relevant.

However, Google recently revealed that, based on the investigations of officials in other countries, it was found that private data had indeed been collected, such as passwords, entire emails and so on.

The ICO then started another inquiry which has now been concluded. While Google has now been found guilty, there will not be any sanctions for the company.

"He has instructed Google UK to sign an undertaking in which the company commits to take action to ensure that breaches of this kind cannot happen again. An audit of Google UK’s Data Protection practices will also be undertaken," the statement also read.

"The Commissioner has rejected calls for a monetary penalty to be imposed but is well placed to take further regulatory action if the undertaking is not fully complied with," it added.

The Metropolitan Police previously dropped its separate investigation into the matter.

Authorities in Australia and Canada also found Google guilty, but so far, no fines have been imposed. Google's measures to revamp its internal policies seem to be satisfactory for authorities so far. There are still some investigations underway.