No fine for Google Street View, but data it still holds must be deleted, rules ICO

Google given 35 days to delete private data it's been holding for over three years

The Information Commissioner's Office has decided not to fine Google over the illegal collection of data on thousands of individuals in the UK by its Street View cars.

While the ICO could have imposed a fine of up to £500,000 for the data harvest, which included passwords, internet usage history and other personal user data belong to members of the public who Google's map-making vehicles passed in 2009 and 2010, it already closed the case last year.

At the time, Google also told the ICO it had destroyed the data it had captured.

The case was only reopened in April 2012 when a US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) report expressed further concerns about the apparent ‘coding error' - and the individual in Google's employ who apparently caused it - which allowed the information to be illegally gathered in the first place.

After assessing the evidence again for over a year - during which it issued Google with an enforcement notice to delete public data it had kept - the ICO's new judgement is that Google must, once again, delete the data it still apparently retains from 2009 and 2010.

Last year, this was said to span four CDs, but a fifth disc has since been discovered. The ICO has insisted the discs have been quarantined, but it is so far unexplained why the last insistence to destroy the data has not yet been followed.

Regardless, it has now given Google 35 days to destroy the information.

Head of enforcement at the ICO, Stephen Eckersley, said the latest enforcement notice "strengthens the action already taken by our office, placing a legal requirement on Google to delete the remaining payload data identified last year within the next 35 days and immediately inform the ICO if any further disks are found."

While the FFC issued Google with a $7m fine, and $25,000 more for the company's apparent attempts to obstruct the investigation, the ICO has decided a fine is not necessary in the UK.

"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," said Eckersley.

"The punishment for this breach would have been far worse if this payload data had not been contained."