Google 'likely to escape punishment' for 'deliberate' Street View snooping: Experts

London, June 14 (ANI): Internet search giant Google is likely to escape punishment for deliberately harvested information from millions of UK home computers while operating specially equipped cars for its Street View service, despite a fresh inquiry into the matter, experts have claimed.

British watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), wrote to Google demanding new answers about the operation, which intercepted and stored data from home and business WiFi networks across the country.

Experts, however, claimed that because the ICO believed assurances from Google in 2010 that it had accidentally intercepted signals as it took pictures of Britain's streets for its mapping service, the chances of a successful prosecution were now tiny, The Telegraph reports.

"It is rather difficult for the ICO to now turn the clock back or indeed prove anything," the paper quoted Chris Pounder, a data protection expert with the training firm Amberhawk, as saying.

Earlier, the ICO officials ordered Google to destroy the data, so wiping out evidence that could be used to prosecute the firm under the Data Protection Act or other privacy laws.

The ICO planned to relaunch an investigation after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), an American watchdog, published a detailed investigation of Street View, which found that Google's claims it did not know its vehicles intercepted WiFi data were untrue.

Martin Hoskins, an independent data protection expert, said the decision to open a new investigation was puzzling in light of the lack of evidence.

"The ICO was persuaded that Google never intended to do any real damage so I'm really surprised this issue has been opened up again," the paper quoted Hoskins, as saying.

"The FCC's investigation shows that when it comes to big global companies like Google, data protection authorities need to work together to get to the bottom of things," he added. (ANI)