Privacy is a hot button issue right now, but Facebook isn’t the only big player vying for a piece of other people’s pies. Google too has stepped up and admitted it might have mistakenly collected personal data while shooting images for it’s Street View system.
Google is no stranger to accusations of compromising user privacy online through it’s search products, but apparently decided to go old school, and took to the streets to collect information from users’ own wifi networks.
Apparently, the Street View vehicle was programmed with the additional task of collecting data about open wifi hotspots such as network names and router information, but the naughty little car seems to have gone one step further, collecting fragments of data available on the networks such as emails and passwords.
Google insists this was a mistake caused by an experimental project, and the data has been quarantined on its network. They are now in talks with regulators in over 30 countries over how to dispose of the data and prevent future breaches.
Facebook is allegedly furious that Google is attempting to steal the privacy limelight, and will no doubt respond next week with an even greater display of carelessness regarding user information.
As reported by Reuters
I must say, that last line is hilarious…if only it weren’t probably true 😛