Rosalie Marshall reports:
UK privacy watchdog the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has asked Google to delete the private Wi-Fi data it has collected from homes and businesses.
Google admitted last week that it is holding the so-called ‘pay-load’ data, which includes Wi-Fi network names, MAC addresses and samples of information sent over networks.
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The ICO has said it will not further investigate the collection of the data, but has asked Google to delete it “as soon as is reasonably possible”.
“In such circumstances there does not seem to be any reason to keep the data concerned for evidential purposes,” said an ICO spokesperson.
The Irish Data Protection Commissioner took the same course of action last week, and Google has already destroyed all the Wi-Fi data collected in Ireland.
However, pressure group Privacy International has criticised the ICO for not taking a tougher stance, and has asked Google not to delete the data so that further investigations can take place. The group described the guidance issued to Google as a “collusion to destroy evidence”.
Read more on V3.co.uk
Thanks to Brian Honan for this link.