14 DAY TRIAL // Authorities in the UK are now contemplating imposing hefty fines for the company, even though the investigation into the matter was completed in the country a few months back.
Authorities in charge of privacy issues are sure fast to make inflammatory public statements or actions, though it's a bit strange that this happens months after incidents have been revealed, as is the case of Google's Street View fiasco.
Britain’s Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, is launching a new investigation into Google's personal data blunder after the revelation that emails, passwords and other sensitive data had been captured by the Street View cars.
When Google first acknowledged that it had been gathering public WiFi communications with its Street View cars, mistakenly the company claims, it said that no one at the company analyzed the data to see what it contains.
The data is mostly fragmentary since its hardware was set up to change WiFi channels about five times a second, meaning that it only captured a few milliseconds worth of communications.
Even with the fastest WiFi connections, that usually wasn't enough for complete files or meaningful data to be captured. However, since this went on for three years and in 30 countries, it was very likely that at least some complete data was captured and this is what several investigations found.
Google acknowledged that it had collected this private data last week based on the results of these investigations and not on its own analysis.
Now, after Google's latest reveal and the conclusion of investigation in other countries, British authorities are starting a new investigation into the matter.
The initial investigation found that "it is unlikely that Google will have captured significant amounts of personal data." It also found "no evidence as yet that the data captured by Google has caused or could cause any individual detriment."
The new findings are in line with the commission's previous conclusion which didn't dismiss the idea that there may be some personal data, just said that there should be little of it.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has the power to fine companies and organizations as much as £500,000 for privacy breaches.
“Now that these findings are starting to emerge, we understand that Google has accepted that in some instances entire URLs and emails have been captured," a spokesman for the ICO said.
"We will be making enquires to see whether this information relates to the data inadvertently captured in the UK, before deciding on the necessary course of action, including a consideration of the need to use our enforcement powers,” he added.