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The UK government has categorically told Google to destroy personal data that was collected from British home wireless networks through the Street View project.
The U.K. Information Commission's Office issued the order on Tuesday, after Google admitting on Friday that it had collected personal data from Wi-Fi hot spots as part of its Street View mapping project. Google said that the collection of random packets of Internet traffic which was sent over to the unsecured hot spots as part of its bid to use Wi-Fi hot-spot triangulation for geolocation services.
To ensure it has properly destroyed all the data, Google has offered to open up its databases to outsiders to review the information. According to the report, the ICO decided that Google should not keep the data as evidence for any future proceedings. This is because, Google had not collected full streams of Internet traffic from users.
The fact that ICO has taken Google's word on facevalue has created a sence of led down for privacy advocates in UK. German government and the public were told by Google that the company did not collate such type of data, but later withdrew its statement.
Google has also been asked by Irish government to delete data from street view activity. Google has informed that it has done the needful in the presence of an independent third party. A preliminary enquiry might be initiated by the Federal Trade Commission, as per the report by the world street journal.
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