Google Mistakenly Collects E-Mails And Passwords

[averagejoe]

Internet search engine Google “mistakenly” collected e-mails and passwords from privately owned computers connected to wireless networks, while the company was spying images for its Street View service. Google took a chance to apologize for mistakenly collecting unencrypted Wi-Fi data using Street View cars.

“We work hard at Google to earn your trust, and we’re acutely aware that we failed badly here,” said senior vice president of engineering and research Alan Eustace.

A new director of privacy Alma Whitten, will take responsibility for making sure effective privacy controls in Google products and internal practices. Yesterday she said: “We are profoundly sorry for having mistakenly collected payload data from unencrypted networks. We want to delete the data as soon as possible and will continue to work with the authorities to determine the best way forward, as well as to answer their further questions and concerns.”

Alan Eustace also said that training and compliance changes would include enhanced training for engineers which would have a particular focus on the responsible collection, use and handling of data. “We believe these changes will significantly improve our internal practices (though no system can of course entirely eliminate human error),” he explained.

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