An investigation by Canada's privacy commissioner confirmed that Google violated Canadian privacy law when its Street View cars collected data from the country's Wi-Fi networks.
"Our investigation shows that Google did capture personal information – and, in some cases, highly sensitive personal information such as complete e-mails. This incident was a serious violation of Canadians’ privacy rights," says Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart.
The commissioner recommended that Google delete all Canadian payload data it collected. Furthermore, per her recommendations, Google should enhance privacy training amongst its employees and ensure it has a governance model in place to comply with privacy laws. If Google implements these recommendations by February 1, 2011, the Privacy Commissioner will not recommend suing Google and will consider the matter resolved.
In May, Google admitted that its Street View cars have collected and stored data from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks, claiming it has done so mistakenly. The incident instigated several privacy probes against Google in countries all over the world, including Australia, Canada, Germany, South Korea and the U.S.