Google ordered to delete Street View data

Search engine giant Google has been told to delete any data which has been wrongly collected with the Street View service. The search engine has been warned to either delete the data within 35 days or will face prosecution.

The Information Commissioner’s office (ICO) of UK says that an enforcement notice has been sent to the the company, which means that Google has to either comply with the demand to delete the data or will need to face criminal proceedings. Stephen Eckersley of the ICO said, “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 discs are found”.

Eckersley went on to say that if the search engine fails to abide by the notice, then this action will be considered as contempt of court which is a criminal offense on its own. ICO did not issue a fine, but said that the damage caused to individuals by the privacy breach did not meet the level which was required to issue a financial penalty.

Google admitted to breaching a privacy law a few months back, when it revealed that the Street View cars had unintentionally cleaned mails, passwords and other confidential information without getting authorization from users.