background preloader

Google SV Canada

Facebook Twitter

Telecom privacy news. Google ditches all Street View Wi-Fi scanning | Privacy Inc. Google has no plans to resume using its Street View cars to collect information about the location of Wi-Fi networks, a practice that led to a flurry of privacy probes after the company said it unintentionally captured fragments of unencrypted data. The disclosure appeared in a report on Street View released today by Canadian privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, who said that "collection is discontinued and Google has no plans to resume it. " Assembling an extensive list of the location of Wi-Fi access points can aid in geolocation, especially in areas where connections to cell towers are unreliable. Instead, Stoddart said that, based on her conversations with headquarters in Mountain View, Ca., "Google intends to obtain the information needed to populate its location-based services database" from "users' handsets.

" That, at least, should come as no surprise. Google's PC software takes a similar approach. Google discloses this behavior to its customers. Preliminary Letter of Findings - October 19, 2010. Google in breach of privacy laws - Canada watchdog. By Allan Dowd VANCOUVER Wed Oct 20, 2010 12:41am IST VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Canada's privacy watchdog accused Google Inc on Tuesday of violating the rights of thousands of Canadians by inappropriately collecting their personal information in building its Street View service.

Google must tighten its privacy protection systems to prevent a repeat of the incident, blamed on a careless software engineer, and should get rid of the data it accidentally collected, Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said. "Our investigation shows that Google did capture personal information -- and, in some cases, highly sensitive personal information such as complete emails. This incident was a serious violation of Canadians' privacy rights," Stoddart said in a news release. Google officials said they were unaware that the computer code that allowed the "payload data" to be collected was in the Street View software when it was installed in cars, Stoddart said.