The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has today said that Google has ‘taken reasonable steps’ to improve its privacy policy, following an audit at its London office.

The audit found that Google has taken action in all of the agreed improvement areas, after it was discovered that Google Street View cars had collected Wi-Fi payload data alongside the location mapping information.

The ICO has now asked that Google goes further to enhance privacy, including ensuring that users are given more information about the privacy aspects of Google products.

Christopher Graham, Information Commissioner, said: “I’m satisfied that Google has made good progress in improving its privacy procedures following the undertaking they signed with me last year. All of the commitments they gave us have been progressed and the company have also accepted the findings of our audit report where we’ve asked them to go even further. 

“The ICO’s Google audit is not a rubber stamp for the company’s data protection policies. The company needs to ensure its work in this area continues to evolve alongside new products and technologies. Google will not be filed and forgotten by the ICO.”

Areas which the ICO highlighted as needing to make improvements were: all existing products to have a Privacy Story – an explanation of how data will be managed in a new product - to provide users proactively with information about the privacy features of products; Google should ensure that all projects have a Privacy Design Document, and that processes to check them for accuracy and completeness continue to be enhanced; and the core training for engineers should be developed to include specific engineering disciplines, taking account of the outcomes of the Privacy Design Document.