Canadian Investigation confirms Google unlawfully collected personal data

According to a report published by the Canadian Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, the world’s largest online search engine, Google, inadvertently violated Canadian privacy laws by erroneously collecting personal information from citizens while the company mapped Canadian streets for its popular Google Street View service in 2008.

The company uses specialized vehicles equipped with advanced camera technologies, GPS, and wireless devices to map cities around the world.

While the vehicles were traveling throughout Canada, the wireless devices on the Google vehicles connected to personal unsecured WiFi networks, collecting personal information, including, without limitation, complete email conversations, user names and passwords.

According to the investigation, the erroneous error was made in 2006 when a Google programmer developed a side project of software that was designed to sample public WiFi data that included the capability to collect personal information.

That project was never forwarded to any internal committee for review, and the company maintains it was not aware of any wrongdoing.

“This incident was a serious violation of Canadians’ privacy rights,” says Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart.

Google acknowledged the error, and publically said it would keep the data secured until the completion of all investigations, at which point it would simply permanently delete the data.

The Commissioner’s report suggested Google should implement new internal governance controls to ensure future compliance, and to have future projects reviewed by its legal committee to evaluate possible infractions and implications.

The Google stock (NASDAQ:GOOG) is down nearly 1-percent to $612.37 per share in mid-day trading.