The U.K. government wants Google to delete all existing Street View data collected over the years within 35 days or the government will start criminal proceedings against the web giant.
The data "mistakenly" collected by Google while taking pictures for its Street View service may pose a big problem if the company does not comply with the orders from the U.K. government. Google has 35 days to delete the remaining data or face criminal charges. The U.K. Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has not imposed any fine as there was no real damage to the customers.
"Today's enforcement notice strengthens the action already taken by our office, placing a legal requirement on Google to delete the remaining payload data identified last year within the next 35 days and immediately inform the ICO if any further disks are found," Stephen Eckersley, ICO Head of Enforcement, said in a statement. "Failure to abide by the notice will be considered as contempt of court, which is a criminal offense."
Besides collecting 360-degree mapping images of the streets, the Google Street View cars collected a wide range of data between 2008 and 2010, which includes e-mails, passwords, photos and chat logs from open Wi-Fi networks within the range. Google maintained that the data it had collected was not on purpose and it had no intention of ever using it. The web-giant has apologized to the governments repeatedly over this huge blunder.
Today's decision follows a reopened investigation from the ICO, which it had closed in April last year. Google admitted to having found additional discs of data not destroyed in the first round, which led the UK officials to re-investigate the issue. The ICO's decision came after convincing proof was provided that the data remained intact.
While U.K. officials have not handed out any fine, the U.S. and Germany imposed huge penalties on Google for the same breach. In April last year, the US Federal Communications Commission fined Google $25,000 and Germany Data Protection Authority charged the web giant with $189,000 for the act earlier this year. In March, Google agreed to pay $7 million in a deal with 38 states of America in addition to destroying all data it had collected from its Street View service.
