After two weeks of privacy complaints and threats of fines, Google has received some good news about its Street View service. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has ended its inquiry into Google’s wireless data grab, saying that the company has added better privacy controls into its corporate structure, Reuters reported.
“Because of these commitments [Google promised the FTC that it has not and will not use the collected data in any of its products], we are ending our inquiry into this matter at this time,” David Vladek, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, wrote in a letter to Google today.
There’s no mention of any fines, and no order to delete the collected data.
We’ve detailed Google’s recent struggles in Italy, England, Germany, Canada, and Spain over the past week in connection to both Street View’s photography of homes as well as the personal data, including e-mails and passwords, the cars collected off unsecured Wi-Fi networks.
UPDATE: According to the Associated Press, Italian prosecutors have now opened an investigation into Google’s wi-fi connection.