Google privacy breach: Damage to brand 'substantial'

Google was found guilty last week of breaching privacy laws after its Street View cars inadvertently collected private information from Wi-Fi networks.

Yet the search engine escaped a fine and was told by the investigating Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to simply delete the data when legally able to. It also gave Google nine months to review its privacy policy.

Jack Adams, SEO consultant at Greenlight told Web User that although Google seems to have been "let off lightly", he believes the breach could have a major impact on the brand's reputation: "There can't be any denying that some extent of damage has been done to users' confidence in the brand and its squeaky-clean image, built around the company's 'don't be evil' motto."

"The damage to Google's brand perception is substantial. With this story looking likely to remain in the news for the near future, an astutely timed and focused marketing push from Bing could still have an impact on the search landscape in the UK."

This is the second time that Google has been investigated by the ICO over its Street View cars.

The initial investigation concluded that the cars had gathered information over the period of April and May last year but that it wasn't 'significant enough' to warrant further action.

The ICO launched a second investigation last month when Google admitted on its official blog that some of the data was of a private nature, including full email addresses, URLs and passwords.

A Google spokesman told Web User: "We are profoundly sorry for mistakenly collecting payload data in the UK from unencrypted wireless networks. Since we announced our mistake in May we have cooperated closely with the ICO and worked to improve our internal controls."

"As we have said before, we did not want this data, have never used any of it in our products or services, and have sought to delete it as quickly as possible. We are in the process of confirming that there are no outstanding legal obligations upon us to retain the data, and will then ensure that it is quickly and safely deleted," the spokesman continued.

The Metropolitan Police launched its own investigation following the initial complaints, as did international privacy watchdogs in Germany and Canada. These investigations are still undergoing.