UK agency resumes Google Street View in light of FCC findings

Do you remember Google’s slight problem with Street View and privacy in 2010? The British authorities have not forgotten: the British Office of the Commissioner for Information (ICO) has resumed the investigation into the collection of information for Google Street View, reports The Verge.

New information released by the US Federal Communications Agency (FCC) indicates that Google might not be as innocent as it tried to appear to British officials in 2010. Google previously claimed that it did not intend to receive the data that its cars collected “by mistake”, and that it tried to delete it as soon as possible. However, in April of this year, the FCC discovered that collecting data - which included whole email messages and messaging conversations - was a deliberate decision by a Google engineer whose colleagues were also aware of this. Then Google agreed to pay 25 thousand dollars to the American FCC to resolve the matter.

A statement released by Google on Tuesday nonetheless stated that its employees were unaware that Street View was collecting data and claimed that it was either not part of their work or that they did not read the relevant documentation. If the ICO ultimately imposes a fine, then Google will have to pay up to 500 thousand pounds (about 777.5 thousand dollars), and other European regulatory authorities can also resume their investigations. In addition, the company is still under charges in Germany, where data collection was first discovered.