When one claims in one’s credo to “do good”, it’s a wise idea not to be caught doing bad.
The Google engineer who wrote the StreetView program deliberately collected personal data from wi-fi networks and went on to tell at least two other colleagues, the FCC report has revealed.
Google released the full investigation conducted by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
It said senior staff on the Street View team were unaware of the plans.
Compounding the folly, Google was fined £15,300 ($25,000) for impeding the FCC’s investigation.
The report came two weeks after a heavily censored version was released by the FCC at the time of the original fine.
It detailed how one Google engineer, referred to only as “Engineer Doe”, produced a computer program capable of collecting data from people’s unsecured home wireless networks.
The data gathered included contents of some emails and web browsing history.
The collection took place while Google was photographing areas in its Street View car between 2008 and 2010.
“Engineer Doe specifically told two engineers working on the project, including a senior manager, about collecting payload data,” the agency said in its report.
“Engineer Doe intended to collect, store and review payload data for possible use in other Google projects.”
The warning to everyone is that when in doubt with Google’s data claims and subsequent suggestion that you “share your data” with other google services- don’t.