EU investigates and - "Oops: Google admits it didn’t delete Street View data after all" - by Cassandra Vinnograd and Raphael Satter

After being caught spying on people across Europe and Australia with its Wi-Fi-slurping Street View cars, Google had told angry regulators that it would delete the ill-gotten data.

Google broke its promise.

Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) received a letter from Google in which the company admits it kept a “small portion” of the electronic information it had been meant to get rid of.

“Google apologizes for this error,” Peter Fleischer, Google’s global privacy counsel, said in the letter, which the ICO published on its website.

The ICO said in a statement that Google Inc. had agreed to delete all that data nearly two years ago, adding that its failure to do so “is cause for concern.”

Other regulators were less diplomatic, with Ireland’s deputy commissioner for data protection, Gary Davis, calling Google’s failure “clearly unacceptable.” Mr. Davis said his organization had conveyed its “deep unhappiness” to Google and wants answers by Wednesday.

Google said that other countries affected included France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Austria and Australia. Attempts to reach regulators in several of those countries weren’t immediately successful Friday.

Google Inc. also admitted for the first time its "Street View" cars around the world accidentally collected more personal data than previously disclosed - including complete e-mails and passwords - potentially breathing new life into probes in various countries.

Note EU-Digest: "Interestingly U.S. regulators looking at Google Inc's data grab by "Street View" cars have decided to end their inquiry, noting "improvements that the search company has made to build consumer privacy into its corporate structure."

Read more: Oops: Google admits it didn’t delete Street View data after all - The Globe and Mail