Pilgrim said that Google informed the Australian government that it had a portion of payload data collected by the Street View vehicles dating from 2010. Google had earlier told his office that it had destroyed the payload data collected from unsecured WiFi networks by the vehicles.
“In recent months, Google has been reviewing its handling of Street View disks and undertaking a comprehensive manual review of our Street View disk inventory. That review involves the physical inspection and re-scanning of thousands of disks. In conducting that review, we have determined that we continue to have payload data from Australia and other countries. We are in the process of notifying the relevant authorities in those countries”, Google wrote in a July 27 2012 letter to Pilgrim.
In his response, Pilgrim told Google to “immediately destroy” the payload data. “Once this has occurred I would like confirmation from an independent third party that the data has been destroyed. Further, I would also request that Google undertakes an audit to ensure that no other disks containing this data exist and to advise me once this audit is completed”, he instructed Google.
“I would add that I am concerned that the existence of these additional disks has come to light, particularly as Google had advised that the data was destroyed. Organisations that retain personal information that is no longer required could leave individuals at risk should it be misused”, he stressed.