MP Slams ICO Over Google WiSpy

Pressure is mounting on the Information Commissioner’s Office to fine Google over the WiSpy incident, in which Street View cars accidentally gathered people’s private Wi-Fi data.

An MP opened a backbench debate in Parliament about the issue today, after slamming the ICO’s failure to take Google to task and calling for an “Internet Bill of Rights”. The incident gained fresh publicity earlier this week when Google admitted that its Street View cars had taken more personal data by Wi-Fi than first thought, and the ICO reopened its case. Previously, privacy groups had threatened legal action against Google.

ICO Inaction?

Google admitted in May that its cars had taken Wi-Fi “payload” data, but only confessed this week that this data included complete URLs, emails and passwords. This led to Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham to launch a new investigation into Google, saying that he was considering using his power to fine companies who breach privacy.

The ICO has the power to impose tough penalties on culprits. While it was not given the power to send people to prison, it is able to impose fines of up to £500,000 on those who leak private data, snoop, or retain it inappropriately. However, so far the ICO has yet to flex its muscles. Thare have been no fines for data breaches since the ICO got the power to impose them, even though there have been spectacular losses of data recently.

MP Opens Debate

Tory Robert Halfon MP opened a backbench debate today in Parliament about the Google WiSpy incident this afternoon, also criticising Facebook and calling for an “Internet bill of rights” to protect individuals online. According to early reports, in the debate, he called the UK Information Commissioner “lily-livered”.

Before the debate he told the BBC that Google had “gone too far” and the ICO’s lack of action was “lamentable”.

“We are sleepwalking into a version of a privatised surveillance society,” Mr Halfon told the BBC, warning that companies like Google and Facebook were harvesting our data for their own purposes.

“I am no internet Luddite,” wrote Halfron in an article for the Daily Telegraph. “In fact, in many ways I am a Google fan. I have a huge belief in the power of the internet to do good, allowing citizen power at its best.”

“But there’s a great difference between advancement of the internet, and violating people’s right to privacy – in essence infringing people’s civil liberties,” he added. “We risk sleepwalking into a privatised surveillance society.”

And Halfon also took issue with the ICO after it cleared Google in July, saying that the data collected cannot be linked to any individuals.

Halfon cited the raids on Google’s offices in South Korea, the banning of StreetView in Greece and the Czech Republic, and the official reprimand from the Canadian privacy commissioner. He also cited the fact that Google faces a serious judicial review in Spain.

“By contrast, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office visited Google’s HQ, had a nice chat with its senior executives, went through its computers, and then decided to do nothing,” said Halfon. “In a statement in July, it said that Google did not appear to have collected ‘significant amounts’ of personal data. How did it miss the huge numbers of passwords, email addresses and emails which Google now admits were involved?”

And Halfon made clear his patience with Google’s excuses is wearing thin.

“For its part, Google trotted out the same line. This is a terrible mistake. We are mortified. It won’t happen again,” he wrote in the Telegraph. “In fairness, it has always been open to discussion with me. A few weeks ago, I visited its offices and was reassured about the “fragmentary” and harmless nature of the data. Since then, however, it has been pressured into a U-turn by freedom of information requests in other countries. Google’s invasion of privacy is starting to look like a pattern.”

FTC Clears Google

Meanwhile in the United States it has emerged that the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ending its investigation over the Wi-Fi fiasco, with hardly any punitive action taken against the search engine giant. The decision was announced in a public letter (PDF) addressed to Google.

“Google has made assurances to the FTC that the company has not used and will not use any of the payload data collected in any Google product or service, now or in the future,” said the FTC. “This assurance is critical to mitigate the potential harm to consumers from the collection of payload data. Because of these commitments, we are ending our inquiry into this matter at this time.”

While this development will be welcomed at Google HQ, the company is still facing investigations by individual state attorneys-general in the US, as well as regulators in the UK and Spain.

The Street View cars have since returned to British roads in August – minus their Wi-Fi antennas, and are also back in action in Ireland, Norway, South Africa and Sweden.