Street View Saga continues
Meanwhile, The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has been accused of sending two un-technically-minded members of staff to probe Google's collection of Wi-Fi data by its Street View cars, The Guardian reported.
Google has admitted its Street View cars ‘accidently' collected data from individuals' and businesses' unsecured Wi-Fi connections when it was collecting images for its location-based services.
The ICO has recently said Google seriously breached UK data protection rules, but had previously come to the conclusion that Google hadn't acted so badly.
Rob Halfon, a Conservative MP has reportedly said the ICO's decision to send out relatively inexperienced staff to investigate a potentially serious breach as ‘astonishing'.
He told the newspaper: "The IOC seems more Keystone Cops than protector of our civil liberties. It is extraordinary that the IOC can spend £13m on PR over 10 years but can't find the right resources to investigate breaches of our data protection."
Apparently new information has also emerged that the information commissioner, Christopher Graham (who has been in the job since mid 2009) and his predecessor had not met a Google rep in 2 years, while staff at the ICO have met the search giant twice in this time frame, according to The Ministry of Justice.
It is believed the ICO sent an assistant commissioner and a 'strategic liaison group manager' to investigate whether Google had illegally nicked personal Wi-Fi data, after deciding it was unlikely Google would do such a thing.
Perhaps trying to make up for lost time, the ICO said Google will be subject to an official audit of its data protection practices in the UK, but the search giant nevertheless escaped without a fine for its breach of laws.
