Google accused of breaking law over Wi-Fi collection

The long-running privacy saga over Google's collection of Wi-Fi data by it Street Car service took a dramatic turn after Privacy International accused the search giant of deliberately intending to break the law by capturing the information.

However, it remains unclear as to whether Google will be prosecuted, with the Information Commissioner Office (ICO) saying it is not responsible for laws covering the interception of data.

The announcement from Privacy International came after an independent audit (PDF) from security consulting firm Stroz Friedberg released by Google stated that it found Google's code did "write to a hard drive the bodies of wireless data packets from unencrypted networks".

The rights group said this proved that Google had been fully aware of its actions and that it was "a criminal act commissioned with intent to breach the privacy of communications".

"This analysis establishes Google did, beyond reasonable doubt, have intent to systematically intercept and record the content of communications and thus places the company at risk of criminal prosecution in almost all the 30 jurisdictions in which the system was used," it said.

It further argued that Google's actions were "the equivalent to placing a hard tap and a digital recorder onto a phone wire without consent or authorisation", and said Google could not blame the incident on an "alleged 'single engineer'".

"It goes to the heart of a systematic failure of management and of duty of care," it added.

The ICO has already ordered Google to delete any Wi-Fi data it had collected and stored, but said it has no further jurisdiction with regard to how the data was gathered, because its remit does not cover the interception of communications.

However, when asked if any other bodies would consider taking any action on the matter, the Home Office said the issue did fall under the ICO's remit and referred V3.co.uk back to the watchdog.

Google defended itself from the accusations, with a spokesperson for the firm reiterating its position on the matter.

"As we have said before, this was a mistake," said the spokesperson.

"It was a failure of communication within and between teams. The report confirms Google did indeed collect and store payload data from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks, but not from networks that were encrypted."

10 Jun 2010