A Google Street View camera in London. Photography: Harold Cunningham/Getty ImagesGoogle has "taken reasonable steps" to improve its privacy policy , given that its Street View mapping cars captured illegal data last year, Information Commissioner said Tuesday.
The internet giant promised to improve how it handles users ' data in November, after the information Commissioner's Office ruled it committed a "material breach" of the data protection act when its mapping cars toured UK cities.
United Kingdom's data protection watchdog said Google had improved its practices, but urged the company to make improvements in some key areas.
"I am satisfied that Google has made good progress in improving its procedures for the protection of personal data by the company they signed with me last year," said Christopher Graham, the information Commissioner. "All the obligations they gave us has been progressed, and the company has also accepted the results of our audit report, which we have asked them to go further.
"Ico Google review is not a rubber stamp for enterprise data protection policies. The company must ensure its work in this area continues to evolve with new products and technologies. Google will not be filed and forgotten by ICO. "
Google attracted criticism from authorities around the world after it admitted to gathering of so-called payload data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks through its Street View mapping cars.
The company said it has improved data protection training for all staff, including design engineers, and built in strict privacy controls for all new products.
But ICO urged Google to improve how it explains to users how their data will be managed within its range of products, including Gmail, search, and Street View.
Watchdog said Google must ensure all its products have a "privacy design document", not just its new services. ICO conducted audit in Google's London headquarters on 19 and 20 July, when the peer "evidence" and interviewed key personnel.
In a post on Google's European public policy blog Tuesday, Alma Whitten, the company's Director of privacy, said it had "significantly improved" core training of technicians in the past year.
Whitten added: "the report validates the improvements we've made our internal privacy structures, training programs and internal reviews and identifies some scope for continued work. We welcome your feedback on our progress and we look forward to working with them to ensure we continue to develop products that reflect strong privacy standards and practices.
"We have worked hard on these new privacy controls that are designed to improve our internal practice without getting in the way of the innovation that has driven Google since its inception. We know, there is no perfect solution, so we will continue to improve our existing processes and develop new so privacy awareness grows and evolves in parallel with Google. "
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