Google data admission angers European officials

European privacy regulators and advocates reacted angrily Saturday to the disclosure by Google, the world's largest search engine, that it had systematically collected private data since 2006 while compiling its Street View photo archive. After being pressed by European officials about the kind of data the company compiled in creating the archive–and what it did with that information–Google acknowledged on Friday that it had collected snippets of private data around the world. In a blog post on its Web site, the company said information had been recorded as it was sent over unencrypted residential wireless networks as Google's Street View cars with mounted recording equipment passed by. The data collection, which Google said was inadvertent and the result of a programming error, took place in all the countries where Street View has been cataloged, including the United States and parts of Europe. Google apologized and said it had not used the information, which it plans to delete in conjunction with regulators.