10 Oct 2012

Google failed to destroy all private information

4:46 pm on 10 October 2012

The Privacy Commissioner has again told Google to destroy information, which may include passwords and emails, collected from unsecured Wi-Fi networks during its street view filming in New Zealand.

Google admitted it had inadvertently recorded data from home wireless networks as it recorded pictures from moving vehicles for its Street View service in 2008.

Google said it had destroyed the data, but found more disks in July this year.

It reported to the commission on Friday that in a recent search it had found one disk that is likely to have New Zealand and Australian data on it.

Google says these were missed when it responded to the original privacy investigations.

The Privacy Commissioner's office has told Google to destroy the disk.

Assistant Commissioner Katrine Evans says collecting the information in the first place was a major breach of privacy.

Ms Evans says the commission did not look into the contents of the data. But she says French and Canadian officials examined data from their countries and found whole emails and passwords, and it is reasonable to assume the New Zealand data was similar.

She says it appears very unlikely that the information on the disk has been accessed or used in any way.