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May 28, 2010

US court orders Google to copy data in Wi-Fi case

Filed under: Google — Tags: Google — admin @ 1:44 am

May 27 (Reuters) – A U.S. court has ordered Google (GOOG.O) to turn over two copies of wireless data scooped up by the company’s Street View cars as they photographed neighborhoods, part of an escalating legal and public relations problem for the search engine giant.

Suits have been filed in Washington D.C., California, Massachusetts and Oregon by people who accuse Google of violating their privacy because the cars also collected data from open Wi-Fi networks.

A U.S. District Court in Portland, Oregon, on Monday ordered Google to make two copies of a hard drive containing data from the United States and turn them over to the court.

Google declined to comment on the lawsuits. It opted last week to retain the data while different jurisdictions figure out what they want done with it.

Google has sent fleets of cars around the world for several years to take panoramic pictures of streets. People using Google’s online atlas for locations and directions can often look at photographs collected by the Street View project and classified by address.

Google says it uses the location of Wi-Fi networks to enhance location-based services on smartphones.

It first revealed that Street View cars were collecting wireless data in April, but said that no personal data from Wi-Fi networks was involved. But after an audit requested by Germany, Google acknowledged it had been mistakenly collecting samples of “payload data.”

A lawsuit filed on Wednesday by Washington D.C. resident Jeffrey Colman charged that “Google was surreptitiously collecting private information, which, on information and belief, included e-mails, video, audio and other payload data belonging to users and operators of home-based Wi-Fi Networks.”

Three U.S. lawmakers, concerned Google may have violated U.S. privacy laws, asked the company on Wednesday to tell them how much personal data was gathered.

California Republican Representative Joe Barton, California Democrat Henry Waxman and Massachusetts Democrat Edward Markey said in a letter to Google’s Chief Executive Eric Schmidt that they also wanted to know how Google planned to use that information.

The Federal Trade Commission has an informal probe underway, its Chairman Jon Leibowitz has told lawmakers. (Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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Google misses deadline to turn over data to Germany

Filed under: Google — admin @ 1:41 am

Google has missed a deadline with regulators in Germany to hand over personal data it collected over WiFi networks as part of its Street View scheme.

The delay means Google could face a fine of hundreds of thousands of euros, and comes as it faces increasing pressure from regulators globally for its unauthorised accumulation of 600GB of personal data.

The data protection authority in Hamburg had asked Google to submit the original hard drives containing the “payload” data – such as e-mails or fragments of web pages being visited by individuals using unsecured wireless networks – by midnight on Wednesday.

Hamburg’s initial request to audit the data collected for Street View, which allows users to see detailed photos of cities around the world, prompted Google’s admission two weeks ago that it had “mistakenly” collected personal information.

Prosecutors there are investigating what they call an “unauthorised interception of data”.

The Hamburg information commissioner also demanded access to one of the cars used to capture photos and other information for Google’s Street View, with which Google has complied.

But Google has asked for more time to consider the legal ramifications of sharing private data with the regulator after being advised that doing so could break German communications law.

“We want to co-operate with [the Hamburg information commissioner's] requests … but as granting access to payload data creates legal challenges in Germany which we need to review, we are continuing to discuss the appropriate legal and logistical process for making the data available,” Google said. “We hope, given more time, to be able to resolve this difficult issue.”

Google admitted that it could face a similar conflict between civil investigators and criminal prosecutors in other countries.

Prof Dr Johannes Caspar, Hamburg’s data protection commissioner, said he did not accept Google’s argument. He said in a statement that the search company would not face criminal action by handing over the hard drive.

Earlier reports in Germany suggested that Prof Caspar could fine Google €300,000 ($367,000) for missing the deadline.

But some privacy campaigners sided with Google. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a US-based digital privacy campaigner, which slammed Google as “too mature to be making these kinds of rookie privacy mistakes”, shared the company’s concerns about further exposing private information.

“Calls from some quarters for Google to turn over the data to the US or other governments are wrong-headed,” EFF said last week . “To allow a government to investigate a privacy breach by further violating privacy is senseless.”

Google last week stopped the global deletion of private WiFi data it has collected following confusion over what it should do with the material. Although it has deleted the data it collected in Ireland, it halted plans to dispose of the information in the UK after a complaint from Privacy International that such a move would constitute destruction of evidence.

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