14 DAY TRIAL // Australia becomes the latest country to investigate Google over the collection of personal data from unprotected Wi-Fi networks with its Street View cars. Various investigations are getting underway in several countries, but Australia is getting the police involved. After receiving complaints from several members of the public, the matter was referred to the Australian Federal Police on Friday by the Attorney General.
The authorities have confirmed receiving the referral. The police will now investigate whether Google’s actions were a breach of the country’s Telecommunications Interceptions Act. This follows a long history of ‘hostilities’ between Google and part of the Australian government.
Other countries have launched investigations over the issue. A couple of class-action lawsuits were filed in the US and the US Federal Trade Commission may be looking into the matter. Investigations are underway in France and Italy too, and also in Canada. Germany, one of Google’s most vocal critics on the matter and on privacy issues in general, has launched its own criminal investigation.
Google revealed three weeks ago that it had collected payload data from unprotected wireless networks that might contain personal data. The company says its Street View cars, which were equipped to gather Wi-Fi network identification data, mistakenly collected and stored fragments of all unprotected Wi-Fi communications that were in range. This was revealed after the company had previously claimed it didn’t collect any data of that nature. The mistake was discovered after Google launched an internal review of the software it used on its Street View cars, spurred by criticism from German data-protection regulators.
The company has called the matter a “screw-up” and has said it plans to cooperate fully with investigators. Still, it initially missed a deadline imposed by German regulators for handing over the data collected. Google said it was worried about the legality of the transfer, but later relented and handed the data over to investigators.