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UK: Google Street View (GSV) collection of payload data

“The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.” Snipped from November 3, 2010 letter from ICO to Global Privacy Counsel, Google France: “My office now understands that GSV (Google Street View) cars driving in the UK before May 2010 were equipped with the same equipment as the GSV cars in countries where regulators found some instances where entire emails and URLs were captured, as well as passwords. As such, my office believes that while most of the payload data gathered from the UK is fragmentary, in some instances it is possible that entire emails and URLs were captured, as well as passwords. It is my view that the collection of this information is a serious breach of the first data protection principle…”

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