Google Apologizes for Snaring Wi-Fi Data

Google has issued an apology for inadvertently collecting the contents of users’ Web transmissions as part of its Street View project, which has come under fire from European data-collection authorities alarmed at the privacy implications of the effort.

To capture a curbside view of an ever-expanding number of world cities, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has been dispatching a fleet of vehicles equipped with cameras, and then compiling the imagery to provide a navigable view of the location on the Web.

But the search giant’s cars have also been collecting information about Wi-Fi networks in the areas they patrol. Google has said that it aimed only to gather publicly transmitted information, such as the network name, or SSID, and data tagged to specific devices, such as wireless routers known as MAC addresses.

via Google Apologizes for Snaring Wi-Fi Data – www.esecurityplanet.com.