Google today in blog post says the accidental collection of Wi-Fi data with Street View cars collected more than it thought and was triggering a privacy overhaul at the firm.
Senior Engineering and Research VP Alan Eustace admitted Street View cars in Europe and elsewhere captured whole e-mail messages, web addresses and in some cases passwords. Google will delete the information as soon as it’s legally cleared, the executive said.
The collection was reportedly the result of leftover experimental code being included in and running with Street View cars collecting photos. The vehicles had Wi-Fi in a bid to map available access points but hadn’t been intended to snoop actual data. These issues have even caused a halt in Street View cars, which has since resumed, but none of the vehicles now have wireless.
Google is going to address the issues by conducting deeper training for engineers on privacy and make a security awareness program mandatory for new hires from December onward. Employees are also going to be required to sign Google’s Code of Conduct. Privacy engineering lead Alma Whitten was also being promoted to direct privacy across both engineering and product management.
