Google threatened with court if it fails to delete personal data collected illegally from homes by Street View cars

Millions of homes had data collected as 350 degree cameras passed

Web giant agreed to destroy discs - but last year admitted it had not

Information Commissioner issues threat the failure to do so will be in contempt of court

Google faces criminal proceedings for holding personal data illegally collect by its Street View cars.

The Information Commissioner has warned the web giant it must destroy four discs containing information it took from unsecured WiFi networks.

If it fails to do so it will be considered to be in contempt of court.

Camera: Google street-mapping cars toured every street in Britain, but also unlawfully collected personal data

The company had promised to delete all of the data but last year admitted it had ‘accidentally’ kept it.

Now the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has warned it must wipe the data or face legal proceedings.

Stephen Eckersley, ICO head of enforcement, said: ‘The early days of Google Street View should be seen as an example of what can go wrong if technology companies fail to understand how their products are using personal information.’

Cameras fitted on cars and bicylces toured the country taking photographs which were then pasted together to create searchable views of every street.

But as it passed homes and businessed the Street View cars also collected passwords and emails from unsecured wireless.

In November 2010, the ICO ordered Google to destroy all data obtained in this way.

But in February last year the company unearthed more data from the UK that had not been deleted.

An engineer deliberately wrote the software to capture the information and shared his work with the entire Street View team, the America’s Federal Communications Commission found.

The revelation prompted the ICO to reopen its investigation.

The additional discs have been kept in ‘quarantine cages’ and had not been accessed, the ICO believes.

But it has ordered the company to destroy the additional data within 35 days.

Failure: Google admitted it had failed to protect privacy of users and will now delete the data

Any further Street View vehicle discs holding personal data and collected in the UK are immediately flagged.

The watchdog said the impact on people affected by the most recent data laws breach was not seirous enough to impose a fine.

But campaigners said Google had escaped with a ‘slap on the wrist’.

Nick Pickles, director of privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: ‘Google collected information it was not entitled to, infringing people’s privacy on a huge scale, then said it had deleted the data when it had not.

View: The cameras on cars provide Google Maps and Google Earth with 360 degree horizontal and 290 degree vertical panoramic street level views

‘The basis of privacy law is that companies do not collect our information without our permission.

‘This episode is worryingly close to severely undermining this principle and setting a precedent that companies can collect data illegally and not face any action if they promise to delete it later on.

‘People will rightly look at the UK’s approach to this issue and ask why, given regulators in the US, Germany and other countries have fined Google for exactly the same infringement, it is being allowed to escape with a slap on the wrist in Britain. Is our privacy somehow less worthy of protection?’

The order comes shortly after a group of EU data protection authorities wrote to Google seeking information about its new Google Glass device and how the company intends to ensure compliance with data protection laws.

And France's privacy watchdog, the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertes, said last week that it has ordered the company to comply with a series of specific privacy requirements within three months or face fines.

A Google spokesman said: ‘We work hard to get privacy right at Google.

‘But in this case we didn't, which is why we quickly tightened up our systems to address the issue. The project leaders never wanted this data and didn't use it or even look at it.

‘We co-operated fully with the ICO throughout its investigation and having received its order this morning we are proceeding with our plan to delete the data.’

Daily Mail