Google has still got your wifi data - what a surprise

Much to no-one's surprise, Google still has some of the data its streetcars desired so much - TCUK:

Today Google confirmed that it had located additional payload data collected by its Street View cars prior to May 2010 and the ICO [Information Commissioner's Office], which has repeatedly asked Google to delete the extra data, has thrown a few choice words in Google’s direction. While the ICO’s head of enforcement Steve Eckersley wrote in his reply to Google that he was “grateful” for the information about the data, and noted Google’s “commitment to continued cooperation with the ICO on this matter,” it’s not all hearts and roses.

The ICO says this data was supposed to have been deleted in December 2010. The fact that some of this information still exists appears to breach the undertaking to the ICO signed by Google in November 2010, according to the ICO.

In their letter to the ICO today, Google said they wanted to delete the remaining data and asked for instructions on how to proceed.

I love that last line....

The answer of course is first to save it to another secret stash, then hit the delete key and smile innocently.....

I think this reluctance to delete data is best explained by a recent McKinsey report on the benefits of holding user data, when they noted wistfully that, sadly for companies:

"Other risks involve breaches of consumer privacy, which could constrain a company’s ability to develop the most revealing consumer insights"

You can stop reading at "The Most Revealing...." as all is revealed

The ICO is going to need something stronger than words to force these companies to give up their big data motherlode, and ever more so in my view - Roosevelt said "walk softly, but carry a big stick". A blunt (financial) instrument and a large digital crowbar are going to be increasingly necessary....