Google cleared of illegal data gathering in UK

The UK Information Commissioner Office (ICO) has been investigating Google for claims of illegal ‘snooping’ over wifi networks in the UK. The ‘Street View’ row first came to light in 2006, when Google was asked to share the material they had collected with authorities in Germany.

Following this, industry experts have likened Google’s method of collecting information to spying, suggesting that their way of getting data is ‘scandalous’. The ‘Street View’ service sends cars out to take photos of areas to map, but it transpires that they also tapped in to unsecured networks along the routes. Data collated included photographs, websites being viewed by people on networks, emails and text.

However, the ICO have now issued a statement to say that Google did not collate useful personal details when it trawled the wifi networks, having reviewed the data which Google collected.

A spokesperson has said: “On the basis of the samples we saw, we are satisfied so far that it is unlikely that Google will have captured significant amounts of personal data. There is also no evidence – as yet – that the data captured by Google has caused or could cause any individual detriment. Despite this, Google was wrong to gather the information.”

In response, Google said: “We welcome the news that the data protection authorities in the UK have found that the payload data contained no meaningful personal information. As we said when we announced our mistake, we did not want and have never used any payload data in our products or services.”

Google has apologised for the accidental collation of personal data, and has now stopped gathering information about wifi networks following the accusations. While the search giant is cleared of wrongdoing within the UK, there is still litigation underway in other countries including the US and Germany.

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