21 October 2010 | Author: J. Morton News Editor
After doing battle with several governments for allegedly breaching privacy laws and suffering through a maelstrom against its data gathering tactics, the wizards of Mountain View have reportedly given up mapping out WiFi locations with their Street View cars for good.
Confirmed by a report from Canada's privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, Google's Street View cars, which ceased collecting the information from WiFi networks after the company revealed it had acquired payload data from unencrypted networks, will be parked for good when it comes to the project.
"Google still intends to offer location-based services, but does not intend to resume collection of WiFi data through its Street View cars," the report read.
Instead the multifaceted internet magnate will turn to its Android handset technology to aid in data collection for location-based services.
"Google intends to rely on its users' handsets to collect the information on the location of WiFi networks that it needs for its location-based services database," the privacy watchdog's report stated. "Improvements in smartphone technology in the past few years have allowed Google to obtain the data it needs for this purpose from the handsets themselves."
While the company maintained it had accidentally harvested potentially sensitive information from wireless networks when intending only to map the location of such wireless hubs, a number of governments took Mountain View to task for invasion of privacy and disregarding local laws.
Canadian privacy commissioner confirms Google's WiFi scanning kaput
After doing battle with several governments for allegedly breaching privacy laws and suffering through a maelstrom against its data gathering tactics, the wizards of Mountain View have reportedly given up mapping out WiFi locations with their Street View cars for good.Confirmed by a report from Canada's privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, Google's Street View cars, which ceased collecting the information from WiFi networks after the company revealed it had acquired payload data from unencrypted networks, will be parked for good when it comes to the project.
"Google still intends to offer location-based services, but does not intend to resume collection of WiFi data through its Street View cars," the report read.
Instead the multifaceted internet magnate will turn to its Android handset technology to aid in data collection for location-based services.
"Google intends to rely on its users' handsets to collect the information on the location of WiFi networks that it needs for its location-based services database," the privacy watchdog's report stated. "Improvements in smartphone technology in the past few years have allowed Google to obtain the data it needs for this purpose from the handsets themselves."
While the company maintained it had accidentally harvested potentially sensitive information from wireless networks when intending only to map the location of such wireless hubs, a number of governments took Mountain View to task for invasion of privacy and disregarding local laws.
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