Google Apologies For Collecting Public WiFi Data

It appears that Google was not just snapping photos of storefronts and sidewalks while cruising the streets of Germany.

News that Google was collecting WiFi information in German while conducting its Street View data raised some concerns. The German data protection agency asked Google to audit the WiFi data collected by the Street View cars. Google has now apologized for collecting data and explained today in their blog how this mistake occurred. The Street View cars will also stop collecting WiFi data.

“The engineering team at Google works hard to earn your trust,”and we are acutely aware that we failed badly here,” said Alan Eustace, Senior VP, Engineering & Research. “We are profoundly sorry for this error and are determined to learn all the lessons we can from our mistake”

Last week, Google stated that it had only collected WiFi network names and MAC addresses but not data from open networks. However, today Google said it did collect data from those open network.

Turns out in 2006 an engineer wrote a bit of code that “sampled all categories of publicly broadcast WiFi data.” A year later that code was incorporated into a project that collected WiFi network names and MAC addresses and that project used Google’s Street View cars.

Once Google figured out this happened they separated the data and disconnected it from their network. They will delete the data once regulators in different countries give them instruction.

As well, a third party will review the software, the data it gathered, and ensure the collected data was properly deleted. Google itself will review its procedures to ensure further problems like this do not occur.

But let this be a lesson to you. Always secure your WiFi network.

[via Official Google Blog]