Google faces new probe for 'deliberately stealing' information during Street View data collection

London, June 13 (ANI): Internet search giant Google will face a new investigation into claims that it deliberately harvested information from millions of UK home computers while operating specially equipped cars for its Street View service.

Google was accused of collecting of sensitive data, including emails and passwords, from millions of unknowing households in November 2010.

The firm agreed to delete all the information that had been collected, telling the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) that the data had been gathered as a result of a simple mistake.

The ICO has, however, reopened its investigation following a report by a US watchdog which found emails, passwords and other information had been collected from millions of unknowing internet users through software deliberately written by an engineer, the Telegraph reports.

Steve Eckersley, the ICO's head of enforcement, in a letter to Alan Eustace, Google's senior vice president, said the ICO's investigation has been reopened and asked for further information.

The move followed a report by the Federal Communications Commission in the US which found in April that an engineer, engineer Doe, deliberately wrote the software to capture the information in 2006 and shared his work on the Street View project with the entire team in October of that year.

The UK watchdog called for Google to provide details on what data was collected in the UK, when Google managers were aware it was happening, and why this type of data was not included in the sample of information provided to the ICO during its original investigation. (ANI)