By Ed Silverstein, TMCnet Contributor
Google (News – Alert) has told members of the U.S. Congress that its collection of WiFi data was a “mistake” but added that the payload data was never used in any Google product or service.
Pablo Chavez, Google’s director of public policy, apologized for the company’s collection of data from WiFi (News – Alert) networks, saying that “we are profoundly sorry,” according to a recent letter to Congress. Payload data is information sent over a network from open, unencrypted networks.“Maintaining people’s trust is crucial to everything we do and, by mistakenly using code that collected payload data, we fell short,” Google said in the letter to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman, Representative Joe Barton and Representative Edward J. Markey.Google has gathered large amounts of data sent over private WiFi networks while documenting the U.S. streets for its Google Street View product. Members of Congress cited one media report which said that Google gathered more than 600 gigabytes of data from WiFi networks in more than 30 countries.Members of Congress said that the data could include personal emails, health and financial information, and search and surfing habits. Google said it is possible that the payload data may have included personal data if a user at the moment of collection broadcast such information, but the company has not conducted an analysis of the payload data to know exactly what was collected.Google adds that collection of network information broadcast by WiFi routers, such as SSID and MAC address, is used to improve location-based services and is a lawful business practice. Google also said: The company knows only two instances when any Google engineer viewed the payload data. Google removed the data from the network so that it is inaccessible. Google stopped the Street View cars from collecting WiFi data. At the request of authorities in Ireland, Denmark, and Austria, Google deleted payload data coming from those countries. Google has retained data collected in the United States due to obligations related to pending civil litigation. Google had an independent firm, Stroz Friedberg LLC, review the software, and Google then posted its report. Some members of Congress this week still had concerns after seeing the most recent letter from Google, and would like a Congressional hearing and Federal Trade Commission inquiry.“Google now confesses it has been collecting people’s information for years, yet claims they still do not know exactly what they collected and who was vulnerable. This is deeply troubling for a company that bases its business model on gathering consumer data,” Barton said. He added that it is “disturbing” and “ironic” that Google is lobbying the government to regulate Internet service providers, but not Google.Last month, Google reportedly admitted to collecting snippets of private data from unprotected WiFi networks in Europe and the United States for a period of about three years.
Ed Silverstein is a contributing editor for TMCnet’s InfoTech Spotlight. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Alice Straight
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