The company said the collection was “a mistake,” the result of a programming error, and that it has now stopped collecting the data, according to a post on its blog. The company asserted, however, that it did not collect or store “payload data” — that is, web surfing data or the content of e-mails, transmitted over WiFi networks. The request prompted Google to take a closer look at the data itself, whereby the company discovered that it was indeed collecting snippets of information passing over WiFi networks and therefore its previous statement was incorrect. non-password-protected) WiFi networks, even though we never used that data in any Google products.” 
 
 The company insisted that the collection was minimal and that its cameras were able to collect “only fragments of payload data,” because the Street View cars are constantly on the move, and someone would need to be using the WiFI network as a Google car passed in order for the data to be collected. Since the cars were in constant motion and their network-monitoring equipment changed channels five times a second, the company says it's "typically" only picked up "fragments" of data. “A year later, when our mobile team started a project to collect basic WiFi network data like SSID information and MAC addresses using Google’s Street View cars, they included that code in their software—although the project leaders did not want, and had no intention of using, payload data.” 
 
 Google said that once it discovered the issue, it grounded its Street View cars.  When we announced three weeks ago that we had mistakenly included code in our software that collected samples of payload data from WiFi networks, we said we would ask a third party to review the software at issue, how it worked, and what data it gathered.
– Google has pronounced itself "profoundly sorry" for the revelation that its roving street-map vehicles have been inadvertently collecting data about websites people visit over unprotected WiFi networks. The company says it's ditching the data and fixing the problem. (See its explanation and apology here.) Some early reaction: "It’s not likely that Google grabbed enough data about many individuals for this to be a major privacy concern," writes Jason Kincaid at TechCrunch. But as it faces increased scrutiny from privacy advocates and governments, "this is certain to haunt Google nonetheless." At Wired, Kim Zetter says it could go beyond bad PR: "The revelation raises questions about whether the company violated federal wiretapping laws in collecting the information and could draw scrutiny from US regulators." Harry McCracken, PC World: "None of this is cause for panic—if anything, Google is guilty of sustained incompetence, not malevolence."