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Google Slapped down
The Information Commissioner's
Office (ICO) originally declared that “Google’s
Street View” was ‘Not
an Infringement of UK privacy Laws’. It was Canada’s
condemnation of Google by Jennifer Stoddart the Privacy Commissioner,
who said "This incident was
a serious violation of Canadian's privacy rights",
which provoked the UK Information
Commissioner to make a “U” turn
on the originall ruling which said that no
data breach had occurred.
The new ruling is that there was a "significant
breach" of the Data Protection Act when
Google collected personal data via its Street View cars, the
UK's Information Commissioner has ruled.
MP Robert Halfon, who has been critical of the ICO and of Google,
complained the action was too late. He said "The
ICO failed to act when it should have done, despite the fact
that Google staged a significant infringement of privacy and
civil liberties, by harvesting millions of e-mails, wi-fi addresses,
and passwords".
"Furthermore, the ICO has
already proved that it lacks the technical expertise to audit
Google's activity. What confidence can we have in their audit
now? People feel powerless."
There was a "significant breach" of the Data Protection
Act when Google collected personal data via its Street View
cars, the UK's Information Commissioner has ruled. But Google
will not face a fine or any punishment, Christopher Graham added.
Instead, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) will audit
Google's data protection practices.
The move marks a U-turn for the ICO which
originally ruled that no data breach had occurred.
Last week the ICO vowed to look again at the evidence, after
the Canadian data agency found the search giant in breach of
its law.
Its decision was welcomed by MP Robert Halfon, who has been
critical of the ICO and of Google, which he recently accused
of deliberately collecting the data for commercial gain. However,
he said that action had come too late. "The ICO failed
to act when it should have done, despite the fact that Google
staged a significant infringement of privacy and civil liberties,
by harvesting millions of e-mails, wi-fi addresses, and passwords.
"Furthermore, the ICO has already proved that it lacks
the technical expertise to audit Google's activity. What confidence
can we have in their audit now? People feel powerless."
The ICO said it "strongly refutes" Mr Halfon's suggestion
that it did not have "the necessary expertise to audit"
Google. "We have a team of experienced and qualified auditors
who regularly check organisations compliance with data protection
requirements."
Peter Fleischer, Google's Global Privacy
Counsel, said the firm was "profoundly sorry for mistakenly
collecting payload data in the UK".
Google said it happened as the
result of code written by one of its engineers being mistakenly
incorporated in the Street View software.
"Since we announced our mistake in
May we have co-operated closely with the ICO and worked to improve
our internal controls," said Mr Fleischer."We
are in the process of confirming that there are no outstanding
legal obligations upon us to retain the data, and will then
ensure that it is quickly and safely deleted."
Backlash
There is a growing backlash against
Google’s Street View service, following complaints from
people that their privacy was breached when the photos were
taken.
In Germany, where Google is imminently
rolling out a service, the government forced it to allow people
to opt out of the service before pictures went live.
Italy has asked it to give citizens
notice before starting mapping operations while the
Czech Republic has banned it from taking
any more pictures.
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Vic
Farron RFT
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