Canuck Privacy Commissioner Wants Google Audit!

In what can obviously be a “me too” approach to a recent FTC ruling in the US over Google Buzz….the Canadian Privacy Commissioner’s office has just demanded from Google, a full privacy audit too!

Jennifer Stoddart, the Canadian Privacy  Commissioner has asked Google to undergo an independent, third-party audit of its policies after her office found the Internet giant’s lack of privacy programs led it to wrongly collect and hold confidential information of Canadians.

“Stoddart’s investigation found Google had inadvertently collected scores of private information — complete e-mails, user names and passwords, home telephone numbers and even the medical conditions of some people — from unsecured wireless networks in homes and businesses as site developers for Google Street View drove around the country in 2009 collecting photos of streetscapes for the mapping program.

But while they were collecting photos, their equipment also downloaded the personal information.”

And Google? How did they respond to this? With this statement – “As we have said before, we are sorry for having mistakenly collected payload data from unencrypted networks,” said a Google spokesman in a statement; “we have worked with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner throughout their investigation.”

Google has begun, they notified her office, to delete and purge all of the personal data that it collected in Canada and until it can be totally deleted, it swears that the data is fully secure and protected and is not accessible.

What this may mean for the recently launched Plus+1 button, which as you now may also know means that as Google Buzz and the new Plus+1 button are tied…no one knows, but it may also be monitored as well….

Further notice from the Commissioner pointed out that they will continue to monitor the process and ask Google to undergo an independent, third-party audit of its privacy programs within a year and share the results with her office. It’s the first time Canada’s privacy commissioner has asked a private company undergo an independent audit.

The statement from Google did not say whether it would agree to an independent privacy audit…but we all await news on this….

Google