Google Says Whole Emails and Passwords Gathered By Street View Cars

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http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20101022-714690.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines 

By Scott Morrison and Andrew Morse   Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--Google Inc. (GOOG) acknowledged Friday the cars its uses to collect data for its online mapping service had inadvertently gathered entire emails and passwords, a disclosure that prompted the Internet giant to appoint a privacy chief and tighten its policies.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet search giant said it wanted to delete the information as quickly as possible. It also announced several steps its would take to improve its internal privacy and security practices, including the appointment of Alma Whitten, who specializes in computer security, as director of privacy for both engineering and products.
The development comes as Google faces heightened regulatory scrutiny around the world prompted by revelations in May that its cars had collected personal data from unsecured wireless networks while taking photos for its Street View mapping service. Google initially said the data was fragmentary, but external reviews discovered that some of the data was more complete than expected.
"A number of external regulators have inspected the data as part of their investigations," Alan Eustace, a senior vice president in charge of engineering and research, said in a blog post. "It's clear from those inspections that while most of the data is fragmentary, in some instances entire emails and URLs were captured, as well as passwords."
Google's admission came just days after Canada's Privacy Commissioner said the company violated the privacy of perhaps thousands of Canadians when it captured sometimes highly sensitive personal information such as complete emails, email usernames and passwords, and even information about certain Canadians' medical conditions.
"Canada has played an important role in blowing the digital whistle," said Jeffrey Chester, Executive Director of the Center for Digital Democracy.
Privacy groups have increasingly become concerned by the amount of data companies collect on consumers as they use the Internet. Google Buzz, a social networking project, quickly became the target of complaints when user information was revealed more broadly than anticipated.
Social network Facebook Inc.'s privacy policies have also been scrutinized.
Eustace said Google would enhance training on the proper collection and use of data for its engineering, product management and legal groups. In December, all employees will be required to take a new information awareness program.
Google said the data collection was caused by the accidental inclusion of coding from an experimental project.
On Friday, Google shares were little changed at $612.53.

-By Scott Morrison and Andrew Morse, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-765-6118; scott.morrison@dowjones.com