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Commissioner Finds Google Breached Canada's Privacy Legislation
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (“Commissioner”) has recently found that Google Inc. (“Google”) breached the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”) by allowing its “Street View” cars to collect payload data from unencrypted WiFi networks in Canada between March 30, 2009 and May 7, 2010. The payload data has been found to contain personal information, including e-mails, usernames, names of individuals, addresses, phone numbers, and other sensitive items.
The Commissioner filed the complaints against Google in May, 2010. By Google’s own admission, the inadvertent collection of the payload data from unsecured wireless networks was due to the mistaken integration of a piece of computer code with the software used to collect WiFi signals. Google has since stopped the collection of data from its Street View cars and has stated that it will securely destroy the collection of the payload data and segregate it by country of origin.
Privacy regulators in France, Germany and Spain have also initiated investigations to determine whether Google collected personal information without seeking consent from those individuals affected. As well, the U.K. privacy regulator has determined that Google violated the U.K.’s Data Protection Act.
The Commissioner has given Google until February 1, 2011 to implement its recommendations, including deleting or safeguarding the payload data collected.
For additional information, visit:
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