US tech giant Google has been gathering users’ private data for at least six years, the 404 Media news portal has reported, citing a leaked copy of an internal Google database.
Among other issues, the US tech giant has recorded children’s voices, saved car license plates using its Street View technology, and leaked people’s travel routes and home addresses, the news portal reported on Monday, citing Google’s obtained internal database containing six years of employee-reported potential privacy and security issues.
Besides, Google has also made recommendations on YouTube video hosting based on previously deleted viewing history, the media website said, adding that the leaked data includes issues reported internally by the company’s employees. Such issues include problems with data collection practices, vulnerabilities in third-party technologies used by Google, and mistakes made by the company’s staff, contractors, or affiliates that affected stored private data.
The incidents reportedly ranged from a mistaken email containing personally identifiable information (PII) to major data leaks and office raids. That database shows that one of the world’s largest tech corporations manages the personal data of a very large number of people, often incorrectly, the news outlet said.
In 2020, a lawsuit was filed against Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, over alleged tracking of users’ activities in various applications even when permissions were disabled, including in anonymous browsing mode. The court then concluded that Google did not notify users of the data collection. In April, the Wall Street Journal reported that Google would delete a huge trove of data containing the search histories of millions of users to settle the 2020 lawsuit.
