Google CEO admits "we screwed up" over Wi-Fi data

 

Gallery

By Nicole Kobie

Posted on 4 Jun 2010 at 10:49

Google has started to hand over Wi-Fi data collected by its Street View photo cars to European regulators, but the UK watchdog still wants the data to be deleted.

CEO Eric Schmidt said Google would hand over the data to German, French and Spanish authorities, admitting in an interview with the Financial Times: "We screwed up."

“If you are honest about your mistakes it is the best defence for it not happening again,” he said.

If you are honest about your mistakes it is the best defence for it not happening again

Schmidt said the data was collected by a software engineer, saying it was possible the unnamed employee came up with the idea during Google's famous 20% time, which lets employees dedicate a fifth of their time to working on their own projects.

Despite the trouble caused, Schmidt said he had no intention of stopping the programme, which has lead to successes such as Google News and Gmail. "It would be a terrible thing to put a chilling effect on creativity," he said.

What about the UK?

While German regulators are considering taking legal action and need the data for evidence, the UK Information Commissioner continues to ask for the data to be deleted "as soon as reasonably possible".

A spokesman for the ICO said the watchdog has not changed its stance that Google should delete the data, which critics have said is tantamount to deleting evidence.

The ICO spokesman admitted that the issue was "slightly complicated" by the possibility Google might be taken to court over the data collection. However, he said that doesn't look likely as the ICO is the UK's only data protection authority, and it has no current plans to take any action against Google.

A spokeswoman for Google said the company had no comment about what it plans to do with the data collected in the UK, and said it remained in talks with the ICO.