May 15th 2010

Google like any large organisation are not in full control of their employees, if you believe their claim that sampling public wifi broadcasts with their Google Car was a complete mistake.


Apparently since 2006 the experimental code has been incorporated into vehicle software. Interestingly in all that time it only came to light because German authorities asked to audit the vehicles data.  Though proof Google didn't know about this will be impossible to prove many will take this as complicity in yet another invasion of personal privacy. At the end of this following BBC report, why would Googel want to position people by using their wifi signals?. What was that research about ?,and who sanctioned it? - this must have appealed to someone at some point within Google who could have take a view on its wider implications but failed to,           

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8684110.stm

GD