Google data gathering called 'criminal'

LONDON, June 9 (UPI) -- A British privacy advocacy group says Google should be prosecuted for collecting private WiFi data while gathering visuals for its StreetView service.

Privacy International claims Google's independent audit of the data, which the company says was collected inadvertently, proves "criminal intent," the BBC reported Wednesday.

"The independent audit of the Google system shows that the system used for the WiFi collection intentionally separated out unencrypted content (payload data) of communications and systematically wrote this data to hard drives," PI said in a statement. "This is equivalent to placing a hard tap and a digital recorder onto a phone wire without consent or authorization."

Authorities in Germany and Australia have launched investigations into Google's data collection, the BBC reported.

Google says the software collecting the data was an experiment by an unnamed engineer intended to improve location-based services and was inadvertently incorporated in the StreetView software.

PI says it disputes that explanation.

"The idea that this was a work of a lone engineer doesn't add up," PI head Simon Davies said. "This is complex code and it must have been given a budget and been overseen. Google has asserted that all its projects are rigorously checked."