Privacy watchdog canes Google on WiFi debacle

James Riley
Friday, 09 July 2010 18:26

IT Policy - Regulation

Search giant Google has given written undertakings to Australia's privacy watchdog over its illegal collection of WiFi payload data and will conduct a Privacy Impact Assessment of the debacle to be handed to Privacy Commissioner Karen Curtis.

But Google has escaped more severe penalties because the Privacy Act does not allow the commissioner to impose sanctions like fines or compensation directives. The incident is still under investigation by other authorities and law enforcement agencies.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner said its investigation of Google's collection of personal data of Australians' through unsecured WiFi networks using StreetView cars would have breached the Australian Privacy Act.

Google Australia has been forced to publish an apology to Australians - which it has done on its corporate blog - and has agreed to provide the Commissioner with a PIA of the incident.

It has also undertaken to consult regularly with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner on data collection activities related to its products in Australia.

"Collecting personal information in these circumstances is a very serious matter. Australians should reasonably expect that private communications remain private," Ms Curtis said.

"On the information available I am satisfied that any collection of personal information would have breached the Australian Privacy Act."

Ms Curtis said the steps would ensure Google's future products have privacy protections built in rather than bolted on. The undertakings will last for three years and will be reviewed following any reforms to the Privacy Act.

Google's carefully worded blog statement, issued under the name of senior vice-president for engineering and research Alan Eustace, says the incident was an unintended error.

"To be clear, we did not want and have never used any payload data in our products or services - and as soon as we discovered our error, we announced that we would stop collecting all WiFi data via our Street View vehicles and removed all WiFi reception equipment from them," Eustace said.