Google has been blamed by the Australian government for breaking its privacy law. This was due to an episode concerning Wi-Fi information that were unlawfully taken using non-public networks.
The Australian Commissioner on Privacy, Karen Curtis, conducted a thorough inquiry into the unpleasant incident. She declared that personal data should be kept confidential, thus, it must not be collected in this manner. Furthermore, she said that Australians are entitled to the right of privacy in their communications. She declared the Google has failed to respect this right by gathering private data via a Wi-Fi connection.
This seems as inevitable since there are other countries which are now likewise conducting a similar inquiry into the same matter. In fact, the Minister of Communications of Australia, Stephen Conroy, has issued an official statement against Google. He stated that Google has questionable or “a bit creepy” guideline on privacy.
But Australia’s privacy act itself precludes the enforcement of any liabilities against Google. But in a bid to make amends, Google has sworn to confer with the Australian Commissioner on Privacy on any matters relating to collection of non-public information, including a review of its privacy policies on all the latest plans for non-public information using Street View technologies.
In addition, a formal apology has been issued by Google via a blog post. A Google top honcho for engineering, Alan Eustace, have also put up a public apology to Australia via its Google Australia blog post. According to the official statement, Google was apologetic for the oversight which caused so much trouble in terms of the public’s trust on Google. This admission by Google of the serious blunder on its part is a first lesson on humility.
There is now a lot of revamping that must be undertaken by Google in order to avoid making the same mistakes in the future.