The Privacy Commissioner of Canada has commence an investigating into Google ’s collection of data from unsecured wireless networks , the office said in a instruction on Tuesday .
datum aegis authorities in France , Italy , andGermany are already investigate Google ’s Street View table service , after the troupe allege last calendar month that its tv camera automobile mistakenly collected datum from unencrypted Wi - Fi internet while compiling images of city street for its Google Maps site .
The ship’s company had said in April thatit had collected only the Wi - Fi connection name and MAC ( media memory access ascendence ) addresses , but not data from unencrypted Wi - Fi connection . The data helps it turn up drug user of its mobile services when they connect over a Wi - Fi web .
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the investigation in Canada .
Expressing fear about the privacy conditional relation of Google ’s confirmation that it had been capturing Wi - Fi data in neighborhoods across Canada and around the universe over the past several age , the statement also quote Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart as saying that her agency had a numeral of questions about how this collection could have happened and about its encroachment on people ’s privacy .
Rapidly growing positioning - base online services are raising new risk of exposure for privacy , as the incident involving Google shows , according to Assistant Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham .
Denham expect the investigation will promote near handling of personal selective information among other organizations involved in the collection of Wi - Fi data for the purpose of facilitating the pitch of location - based services .
The billet of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has asked Google to hold the information it collected in Canada . The Privacy Commissioner of Canada is mandated by the country ’s Parliament to work as an ombudsman , counselor and guardian of privacy and the protection of personal information right of Canadians .
