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June 7, 2010
BANK details and other private information of Australians may have been illegally obtained by Google, the federal government says.
Employees of the internet giant are under police investigation for collecting personal information about Australians while they photographed streets for the Google Maps website.
Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland revealed on Sunday that he had referred the matter to the Australian Federal Police.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told a Senate hearing in May that if proven, it would amount to the "single greatest breach in the history of privacy''.
''(If) you were doing a banking transaction, or transmitting personal information, they could have hoover-ed it up, sucked it up into their machine,'' he told ABC Television on Monday.
"What we want to ensure now is that we get access to the information that's been collected.
"We want to know where it's stored, we want to know what the information is, and importantly we want to ensure that Google don't destroy this information.''
It was a reminder that Australians should always be alert to online security, Senator Conroy said, while spruiking Cyber Security Awareness Week.
Up to one third of Australians don't always tap into their wireless connections with passwords, making them vulnerable to security attacks, he said.
Senator Conroy said it was up to police to accept Google's claim that the collection of personal information was a mistake.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/google-street-view-cars-may-have-obtained-bank-details/story-e6frgakx-1225876377711
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