Google has recently come under fire for violation of Canada's privacy laws, according to Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart.
The issue started when Google Canada began to collect photos for its Street View service, which is widely used in the United States to provide visuals to locate businesses such as restaurants and Calgary self storage, as well as residential areas. The issue arose when Google's vehicles that collected these photos accidentally picked up additional data from unsecured wireless networks.
Despite Google's efforts to review and alter their own privacy standards, Commissioner Stoddart requested they hire a third party auditor to do a review of their policies. She asked that the conclusions from this audit be presented to her office within the next year. Google has not yet offered a response to the commissioner's office, as it seems unlikely the worldwide tech frontrunner will allow outside organizations into its computer system.
Commissioner Stoddart intends to use this as a basis for other companies under privacy violations investigation. If a company is under investigation, it must proved a third party audit of their policies to the Commissioner's office to demonstrate that they are complying with the regulations already in place.
Google has already made efforts for compliance. They plan to increase privacy training for employees, track all projects which collect data, and have already begun to delete some of the photos taken for Street View.