Google Accidentally Mapped Much More Than Addresses, Says Privacy Boss
Posted October 19, 2010 11:49 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Canada’s privacy commissioner says the world’s most popular search engine knows too much about Canadians.
Jennifer Stoddart says Google broke Canadian privacy laws when it accidentally collected personal information from unsecured wireless networks while putting together its Street View mapping service.
An investigation by Stoddart’s office found complete emails, addresses, usernames, passwords and even a list that provided the names of people suffering from certain medical conditions was collected.
Stoddart says an engineer’s careless error is at fault for the privacy breach.
In their response to Stoddart’s findings, the company said it had no intention to use the data and would keep it safe until all investigations are complete.
But Stoddart said Google must also beef up privacy training and controls.
